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THE 



Commemorative Services 



OF 



THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEWTON 
MASSACHUSETTS 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

OF ITS FOUNDATION 



FRIDAY, SUNDAY AND MONDAY, 
OCT. 30, NOV. 1 AND 2, 1914 



PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH 
1915 






RUMFORD PRESS, 
CONCORD. NEW HAMPSHIRE 



// 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

HISTORICAL NOTES 7-8 

LIST OF MINISTERS 9 

INTRODUCTION 11-21 

PRAYERS AT COMMUNION SERVICE 25-29 

MEMORIAL COMMUNION ADDRESS, BY REV. WIL- 

LIAM H. COBB, D.D 31-37 

PRAYERS AT HISTORICAL SERVICE 41-42 

HISTORICAL SERMON, BY REV. EDWARD MacARTHUR 

NOYES 43-72 

BIBLE-SCHOOL SERVICE 75-88 

Greeting, by Mr. Charles E. Kelsey 75 

Address: Sunday in the Past, Rev. Edward Mac- 
Arthur NoYES 77 

Address: Sunday in the Present, Mr. Allan C. Emery . 80 
Address: Sunday Around the World, Rev. James L. 

Barton, D.D., LL.D 82 

Address: Sunday in the Future, Rev. Jason Noble 

Pierce 84 

YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERVICE 90-117 

Prayer: Rev. William Ewing, D.D 90 

Address: The Church and Social Service, Mrs. Mary 

Kingsbury Simkhovitch 91 

Address: The Church and Education, Prof. Arthur 

Gordon Webster, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D loi 

Address: Young People and the Church, Rev. Francis 

E. Clark, D.D., LL.D iii 

SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 121-140 

Greetings from the City, His Honor, Mayor Edwin 

O. Childs 122 

Greetings from the Mother Church, Rev. Raymond 

Calkins, D.D 125 



6 CONTENTS 

SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP— Con/tnued page 

Greetings from the First Baptist Church, President 

George E. Horr, D.D 127 

Greetings from the Eldest Daughter (Second Church, 

West Newton), Rev. J. Edgar Park 129 

Greetings from the Youngest of the Family (Union 

Church, Waban), Rev.Charles H. Cutler, D. D. . . 132 
Greetings from the Boston Churches, Rev. Willis H. 

Butler i33 

Greetings from the Churches of Newton Centre, Rev. 

Edward T. Sullivan 136 

BANQUET 143 

Welcome, by Mr, William H. Rice, Chairman . 143 

Speech of Mr. Frank H. Stewart, Toastmaster . 145 

Response to the Toast, The Liberty of Prophesying, 

Rev. Samuel M. Crothers, D.D 149 

Response to the Toast, Old New England Churches 

AND Their Children, Judge William F. Bacon . . 153 

Response to the Toast, Church Folks, Hon. James M. 

W. Hall 155 

Response to the Toast, Fidelity to Conscience, Dean 

William Edwards Huntington, D.D., LL.D. . . 159 

CLOSING SERVICE 164-182 

Prayer: Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes .... 165 
Address: The Church that Stands Four-Square, Rev. 
Charles Reynolds Brown, D.D., Moderator of the 
National Council of Congregational Churches . . 167 

APPENDIX 185-199 

Letters 185 

Description of Memorials 194 

List of Officers and Committees of the Church . . 198 

INDEX OF NAMES 201 



HISTORICAL NOTES 



NEWTON was originally a part of Cambridge, and 
called Cambridge Village, Religious services were 
instituted in 1654, ^^^ the first meeting-house was built 
in 1660. In 1661, by an act of the General Court, the 
people were relieved from paying rates in Cambridge, The 
First Church was organized July 20, 1664, with eighty 
members — forty men and forty women. Until 1780, when 
the First Baptist Church was formed, a period of one 
hundred and sixteen years, it was the only church in the 
town. Cambridge Village was set off from Cambridge and 
made an independent town in 1678, under the name of 
Newtown, later abbreviated to Newton. 

The house of Rev. John Cotton was burned in 1720, and 
that of Rev, Jonas Meriam in 1770, The church records 
were thus twice destroyed and imperfectly restored from 
memory. The first bell was the gift of Federal Street 
Church, Boston, in 1810. 

The Sunday-school was organized in 1816 in a little red 
schoolhouse on Homer Street with twenty scholars. Dea. 
Elijah F. Woodward was the first superintendent, and held 
the olifice for thirty years. The enrollment now is four 
hundred and eighty-seven. 

Fifty-seven members of the church fought in the Revolu- 
tionary War, out of a total male membership (in 1776) of 
seventy-eight. Twenty from the congregation were volun- 
teers in the Civil War, 

The church was incorporated in 1895. The present 
membership is six hundred and two. The parish includes 
three hundred and seventy-five families. 

Six meeting-houses have been erected, in 1660, 1698, 
1 72 1, 1805, 1847 and 1904. The first was built in the old 



8 HISTORICAL NOTES 

cemetery on Centre Street. The second, nearly opposite, 
on land now included in the estate of Mr. Joseph L. Colby. 
The third, after long discussion, on the present site, selected 
by a Committee of the General Court, to whom the matter 
was referred for decision. The present building was de- 
signed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, and erected by 
Horton and Hemenway. The cost was $107,100. The 
furnishings, provided by the ladies of the parish, cost 
$5,000 additional, and the organ, installed in 1905, $10,000 
more. The total value of the church property is about 
$150,000. There is no debt. 

The other Congregational Churches in the city were 
established as follows: Second Church (West Parish), 
West Newton, 1781; Eliot Church, Newton, 1845; Auburn- 
dale Church, 1851; North Church, Nonantum, 1866; 
Central Church, Newtonville, 1868; Newton Highlands 
Church, 1872; Union Church, Waban, 191 1. 



MINISTERS 



1 664-1 9 14: 250 Years 

1. JOHN ELIOT, Jr., son of the Apostle Eliot, born in 

Roxbury, Mass.; graduated at Harvard College, 
1656; ordained here, July 20, O. S., 1664; died here, 
October 11, 1668, aged 32; buried in the old burying- 
ground, Centre Street; pastor, 4 years. 

2. NEHEMIAH HOBART, born in Hingham, Mass.; 

graduated at Harvard College, 1667; ordained here, 
December 23, 1674; died here, August 25, 1712, 
aged 63 ; buried in the old burying-ground ; pastor, 38 
years. 

3. JOHN COTTON, born in Sandwich, Mass. ; graduated 

at Harvard College, 1710; ordained here, Novem- 
ber 3, 1714; died here. May 17, 1757, aged 63; buried 
in the old burying-ground ; pastor, 43 years. 

4. JONAS MERIAM, born in Lexington, Mass.; grad- 

uated at Harvard College, 1753; ordained here, 
March 22, 1758; died here, August 13, 1780, aged 
50; pastor, 22 years. 

5. JONATHAN HOMER, born in Boston, Mass.; 

graduated at Harvard College, 1777; ordained here, 
February 13, 1782; resigned, April 17, 1839; died 
here, August 11, 1843, aged 84; buried in the old 
burying-ground; pastor, 57 years. 

6. JAMES BATES, born in Randolph, Vt. ; graduated at 

Dartmouth College, 1822; ordained here, as collea- 
gue with Dr. Homer, November 14, 1827; resigned, 
April 17, 1839; died December 9, 1865, aged 66; 
associate pastor, 11 years. 



10 MINISTERS 

7. WILLIAM BUSHNELL, born In Saybrook, Conn.; 

graduated at Yale College, 1828; installed here, May 
24, 1842; resigned December 13, 1846; died April 
28, 1879, aged 78; buried in the old burying-ground ; 
pastor, 4 years. 

8. DANIEL L. FURBER, born in Sandwich, N. H.; 

graduated at Dartmouth College, 1843; ordained 
here, December i, 1847; resigned, December 3, 1882, 
and became pastor emeritus; continuing to live at 
Newton Centre until his death in 1899, at the age 
of 79; buried in Newton Cemetery; pastor, 35 years; 
pastor emeritus, 17 years.. 

9. THEODORE J. HOLMES, born in Utica, N. Y.; 

graduated at Yale College, 1853; installed here, Octo- 
ber 24, 1883; resigned September 24, 1893; died 
December 4, 1906, aged 73; buried in Newton Ceme- 
tery; pastor, 10 years. 

ID. EDWARD MacARTHUR NOYES, born in New 
Haven, Conn.; graduated at Yale College, 1879, 
Yale Theological Seminary, 1882; pastor at Duluth, 
Minn., 1883-94; installed here, October 31, 1894. 



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THE FURBER MEMORIAL WINDOW 



DEDICATED DECEMBER 13. 1913 



DESIGNED AND MADE 
BY CHARLES J CONNICK 



INTRODUCTION 



THE Two Hundredth Anniversary of The First Church 
in Newton fell in the year 1864, when the anxiety 
and distress of the Civil War prevented any adequate 
observance of the occasion. 

It was, therefore, determined to mark the Two Hundred 
and Twenty-Fifth Anniversary by a fitting celebration, 
which was admirably carried out October 6 and 7, 1889, 
under the direction of a General Committee consisting of 
Rev. Theodore J. Holmes, Judge Robert R. Bishop, Charles 
S. Davis, Arthur C. Walworth, Samuel Ward and William 
E. Webster. The records of this celebration, with the 
notable historical discourse by the Pastor Emeritus, Rev. 
Daniel Little Furber, D.D., the historical sermon by the 
Pastor, Rev. Theodore James Holmes, and the other 
speeches and addresses, have been preserved in a handsome 
commemorative volume, printed by the Society in 1890. 

The first step toward the observance of the Two Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary was taken at the annual meeting, 
January 21, 1909, when a committee was appointed to 
secure funds for the erection of a memorial window in the 
north transept of the meeting-house as a tribute to the 
former pastors. The Woman's Benevolent and Church Aid 
Society had already started a fund for this object. A 
committee on the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
was appointed February 11, 19 12, and given authority to 
make all arrangements for the celebration. The members 
of this committee were Joshua M. Dill, Hon. James M. 
W. Hall, Charles E. Kelsey, Rev. Edward M. Noyes, 
Herbert I. Ordway, William H. Rice, Arthur C. Walworth 
and Samuel Ward. Three of these, Messrs. Ordway, Wal- 
worth and Ward, had served on committees in connection 



12 INTRODUCTION 

with the preceding anniversary. At a meeting of the 
church held March 29, 1912, it was voted to dedicate the 
transept window to the memory of Dr. Furber and Mrs. 
Furber, and to erect a bronze tablet commemorating the 
former ministers of the church. The Anniversary Com- 
mittee was enlarged by the addition of five members from 
the Woman's Society: Mrs. Christopher M. Goddard, Mrs. 
Albert L. Harwood, Mrs. Herbert I. Ordway, Miss J. Eva 
Ransom and Mrs. William E. Shedd, and they were au- 
thorized to add to their numbers and instructed to pro- 
ceed with the erection of these memorials. 

After several months Mrs. Ordway and Miss Ransom, 
finding it impossible to continue their service, resigned from 
the committee, and their places were taken by Mrs. Charles 
Peter Clark and Mrs. Abraham Polhemus. Mr. Charles 
H. Paul was added to the committee, but resigned on ac- 
count of removal from the city, and the list was completed 
by the addition of Mr. Elias B. Bishop, Mr. Abner K. Pratt 
and Mr. Frank H. Stewart. Messrs. Dill, Hall and Noyes, 
with Mrs. Goddard and Mrs. Shedd, were made the sub- 
committee on the memorial window. 

In consultation with Mr. Charles S. Coolidge of the firm 
of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the architects of the 
church, the design for the window presented by Mr. Charles 
J. Connick of Boston was approved, and the window was 
dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, Sunday, December 
I3> 1913- The inscription reads: "In loving Memory of 
Daniel Little Furber, D.D., and Maria Brigham Furber." 
The window illustrates the Ministry of Jesus. The cen- 
tral panels portray the Ministry of Teaching, in the Sermon 
on the Mount and four familiar parables — the Pharisee 
and Publican, Dives and Lazarus, the Good Samaritan and 
the Prodigal Son. The lower panels are given to the Min- 
istry of Works, shown in the Miracle at Cana, Feeding the 
Five Thousand, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Raising 
the Daughter of Jairus and the Raising of Lazarus. The 
small windows at the top represent the Angels of the Beati- 



INTRODUCTION 



13 



tudes. The cost of the window was $4,500, of which $2,231 
was given by the women of the parish. 

A bronze tablet, with the names of the former ministers 
of the church and the dates of their service, was placed on 
the north wall of the audience-room and unveiled in con- 
nection with the anniversary exercises. The women of the 
church presented this tablet. 

The inscription is as follows: 



1664 • 1914 

TO THE MEMORY OF 
THE MINISTERS 
OF THIS CHURCH 



John Eliot, Jr. 1664-1668 

Nehemiah Hobart 1674-1712 

John Cotton 17 14-1757 

Jonas Meriam i 758-1 780 

Jonathan Homer i 782-1839 

James Bates associate i 827-1 839 

William Bushnell 1842-1846 

Daniel Little Furber 1847-1899 

Theodore James Holmes 1883-1893 



The church was organized July 20, 1664, but it was 
thought wise to defer the celebration of the anniversary 
until autumn. The following invitation was sent to absent 
and former members of the parish and to invited guests, 
including the officers of contemporary churches in this 
vicinity : 



14 INTRODUCTION 

invUei ucu ic »e Areienf at line cete»p'<i/u>n o£ £ne 

c/ «& ^r^fu/niy'o/ion 

tj/i>i</a/u., ryunaau and ^yMondau 

Vclo^ 301^ and ^ove^nle^ ^U and 2nd, ^9^J^ 

,^nm»lon ^enir^, i./Plaii. yVilUam. ^^t. i^aice, .^nation vietUre 

The following were the committees: 

GENERAL COMMITTEE 

Mr. William H. Rice, Chairman Mrs. Albert L. Harwood 

Mr. Herbert I. Ordway, Mr. Charles E. Kelsey 

Secretary Rev. Edward M. Noyes 

Mr. Joshua M. Dill, Treasurer Mr. Abner K. Pratt 

Mr. Elias B. Bishop Mrs. Abraham Polhemus 

Mrs. C. Peter Clark Mrs. William E. Shedd 

Mrs. Christopher M. Goddard Mr. Frank H. Stewart 

Mr. James M. W. Hall Mr. Arthur C. Walworth 

Mr. Samuel Ward 

On Memorial Window 

Mr. Joshua M. Dill, Mrs. Christopher M. Goddard 

Chairman Rev. Edward M. Noyes 

Mr. James M. W. Hall Mrs. William E. Shedd 



INTRODUCTION I 5 

On Invitations 

Mr. Charles E. Kelsey, Mr. Herbert I. Ordway 

Chairman Mr. Arthur C. Walworth 
Mr. Elias B. Bishop Mr. Samuel Ward 

Rev. Edward M. Noyes 

On Hospitality 

Mrs. Albert L. Harwood, Mrs. Christopher M. Goddard 

Chairman Mr. James M. W. Hall 
Mr. Joshua M. Dill Mr. Frank H. Stewart 

Sub- Committee 
On Entertainment of Guests 

Mrs. Christopher M. Goddard, Mrs. Henry Daily 

Chairman Mrs. Frederic H. Butts 

On Tablets 

Mr. Samuel Ward, Chairman Mr. Herbert I. Ordway 

Mr. James M. W. Hall Mrs. Abraham Polhemus 

Mr. Arthur C. Walworth 

On Memorials 

Mr. Herbert I. Ordway, Mr. Herbert J. Kellaway 

Chairman Mrs. William E. Shedd 

Mrs. C. Peter Clark Miss Maria F. Wood 

On Music 

Mr. S. Willoughby Wilder, Mr. George A. Holmes 

Chairman Mr. Arthur C. Walworth 

On Programs and Printing 

Mr. Abner K. Pratt, Chairman Mr. Allen Hubbard 
Mr. Norman H. George Rev. Edward M. Noyes 

On Finance 

The Men's Club 
Mr. C. Peter Clark, President 
Mr. George A. Holmes, Mr. W. Lawrence Beckett, 

Vice-President Sec.-Treas. 



l6 INTRODUCTION 



On Decorations 

Mrs. Samuel Ward, Chairman Mrs. George W. Hopkins 
Mrs. Alfred E. Alvord Mrs. Charles E. Kelsey 

Mrs. Edward A. Andrews Mrs. Daniel T. Kidder 

Mrs. Norman H. George Mrs. William H. Rice 

Mrs. George A. Holmes Mrs. Frederick C. Rising 

Mr. Charles H. Sawyer 



Ushers 

Mr. A. Leslie Harwood, Jr., Mr. George C. Ewing 

Chairman Mr. William D. Rising 
Mr. Alfred E. Alvord Mr. E. Farnum Rockwood 

The souvenir program of the celebration contained pic- 
tures of the present meeting-house and the one which pre- 
ceded it, and of the three ministers remembered by the 
present generation: Rev. Daniel Little Furber, D.D., Rev. 
Theodore James Holmes, and Rev. Edward MacArthur 
Noyes, The Order of Exercises was as follows: 

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

FIRST CHURCH IN NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS 

Corner Centre and Homer Streets, Newton Centre 

edward macarthur noyes, minister 

OCTOBER THIRTIETH-NOVEMBER SECOND 

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN 

1664 I9I4 

ANNIVERSARY SERVICES 

Friday, October 30th, 7.45 P.M. 
Communion Service and Reception of New Members 

The Pastor will be assisted in the administration of the 
Sacrament by Rev. William Ewing, D.D., and Rev. Parris 
T. Farwell. The Memorial Address will be given by Rev. 
William H. Cobb, D.D. Organ prelude, "Evening Rest," 



INTRODUCTION 17 

Rheinberger; postlude, "Largo," Handel. Soprano Solo by- 
Mrs. S. W. Wilder, "Unto Thee, O Lord," Costa. Com- 
munion hymns: "For all the saints who from their labors 
rest," No. 614, and "When I survey the wondrous cross," 
No. 254. 

Sunday, November i, 191 4 

Historical Service, 10.30 A.M. 

Prelude — Praeludium Rheinberger 

DOXOLOGY 

Prayer of Invocation Rev. Albert G. Bryant 

The Lord's Prayer 

Anthem — "Who is like unto Thee " Sullivan 

Responsive Reading 

Hymn No. 749 (Tune 657) — "O God, beneath Thy guiding hand " 

Scripture Lesson 

Prayer Rev. Wolcott Calkins, D.D. 

Offertory — "Except the Lord build the house " Gilchrist 

Prayer of Consecration 

Hymn No. 636 — "A mighty fortress is our God " 

Sermon The Pastor, Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes 

Hymn No. 172 — "O God, our help in ages past " 

Prayer and Benediction (The congregation seated) 

Postlude — "Hallelujah Chorus" Handel 

Bible School Service, 3.30 P.M. 

Welcome by the superintendent of the Bible School, 
Mr. Charles E. Kelsey. Brief addresses on "Sunday in 
the Past," by the pastor, Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes; 
"Sunday in the Present," by Mr. Allan C. Emery; "Sunday 
'Round the World," by Rev. James L. Barton, D.D., and 
"Sunday in the Future," by Rev. Jason Noble Pierce. 
Organ prelude, "Pastorale," Sullivan; postlude, "Marche 
de Fete," Claussman. Anthem (responsive), "Come, ye 
children, unto me," Maunder, with solos by Mrs. S. W. 
Wilder. Hymns: "Fairest Lord Jesus," No. 229, "The 
Church's one foundation," No. 633, "Ten thousand times 
ten thousand," No. 783, "Who is on the Lord's side?" 
No. 862. 



1 8 INTRODUCTION 

Young People's Service, 7.30 P.M. 

Addresses by two graduates of the church: Mrs. Mary 
Kingsbury Simkhovitch of Greenwich House, New York 
City, on "The Church and Social Service"; and Prof. 
Arthur G. Webster of Clark University, on "The Church 
and Education." Closing address on "Young People and 
the Church," by Rev, Francis E. Clark, D.D., president 
of the United Society of Christian Endeavor. Organ 
prelude, "Prayer," Borowski; postlude, "Processional 
March," Whitney. Anthem, "Rejoice, Oh! ye righteous," 
Herman. Hymns: "O God of Bethel," No. 537, "Glorious 
things of Thee are spoken," No. 632, "Stand up. Stand up 
for Jesus," No. 600. 

Monday, November 2, 1914 
Service of Fellowship, 3 P.M. 

Rev. James L. Barton, D.D., presiding. Greetings and 
congratulations. Brief speeches by His Honor Mayor 
Edwin O. Childs, in behalf of the city; Rev. Raymond Cal- 
kins, D.D., for the mother church; President George E. 
Horr, D.D., for the next oldest church in the city, the First 
Baptist Church ; Rev. J. Edgar Park, for the eldest daughter, 
the Second Church, West Newton; Rev. Charles H. Cutler, 
D.D., for the youngest member of the family, the Union 
Church, Waban; Rev. Willis H. Butler, for the churches of 
Boston; and Rev. Edward T. Sullivan, for the other churches 
of Newton Centre. Organ prelude, "Prelude in C minor," 
Tours. Hymns: "Jesus Shall Reign," No. 701, and "My 
Country, 'tis of Thee," No. 753. At the close of the service 
Mr. D. Ralph Maclean will give a fifteen-minute organ 
recital, playing the Choral, Minuet, Prayer, and Toccata 
(Suite Gothique), Boellmann. 

Banquet, 5.30 P.M. 

Frank H. Stewart, Esq., chairman of the Prudential 
Committee, toastmaster. Toasts: "The Liberty of Proph- 



INTRODUCTION I9 

esying," Rev. Samuel M. Crothers, D.D.; "Old New 
England Churches and Their Children," Judge William F. 
Bacon; "Church Folks," Hon. J. M. W. Hall; "Fidelity to 
Conscience," Dean William E, Huntington, D.D. 

Closing Service, 8.00 P.M. 

Organ recital by Mr. D. Ralph Maclean, from 7.30 to 
7.55, "Grand Choeur, G minor," Guilmant; "Scottish 
Eclogue," Salome; "Prelude, Clerambault (composed 1676) 
Cantilene," Wheeldon; "Festival Prelude," Ravanello. 

Oration by Rev. Charles R. Brown, D.D., Moderator of 
the National Council of the Congregational Churches, 
subject: "The Church That Stands Four-Square." 
Anthems: "Te Deum Laudamus," Smart; "I Will Mention 
Thy Loving-Kindness," Sullivan. Hymns: "I Love Thy 
Kingdom, Lord," No. 630, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' 
Name," No. 333. Postlude : "Grand Choeur, E flat minor," 
Guilmant. 

The weather was favorable throughout the celebration 
and the attendance at all the services was very large, aggre- 
gating nearly two thousand at the three services on Sunday. 
Many former members were welcomed back, the other 
churches in the village and the other sections of the city 
were well represented, and there were many visitors from 
neighboring communities, especially on Monday afternoon 
and evening. 

The church was appropriately decorated and much inter- 
est was aroused by the exhibit of memorials in the north 
parlor of the chapel. A list of these will be found in the 
Appendix. 

The music at all the services was of a high order. The 
organ numbers, selected and played by Mr. D. Ralph Mac- 
lean, the organist of the church, contributed much to the 
services, and the recitals on Monday afternoon were espe- 
cially enjoyed. The appropriate anthems were admirably 
rendered by the regular quartet, reinforced by the addition 
of two voices on each part. The choir was composed of 
the following members : 



20 INTRODUCTION 

Organist and Director 
Mr. D. Ralph Maclean 

Choir 
Sopranos Altos 

Mrs. Lora Lamport McGuane Mrs. Ida Benjamin Gruhn 
Miss Lilian V. Beatey Mrs. Ethel House Nunn 

Miss Alice V. La Marchant Mrs. Cara Sapin 

Tenors Basses 

Mr. Harry A. Cook Mr. Augustus T. Beatey 

Mr. Lester M. Bartlett Mr. W. E. Davison 

Mr. Charles R. McAlister Mr. Henry Kelly 

One of the features of the celebration was the hearty 
singing of the congregational hymns. The front seats in 
the audience were filled by a large chorus of men who sang 
the melody, and the congregation followed this inspiring 
leadership with contagious enthusiasm. The singing of 
"Coronation" after Dr. Brown's closing address on Monday 
evening was most impressive. 

The Men's Club undertook the financial responsibility 
of the celebration, and thus relieved the General Committee, 
and rendered an important service to the church. 

For more than a hundred years this was the only church 
in the town, and its history and that of the town were prac- 
tically identical. It was very pleasant to note that the 
whole community felt that they had a share in this anni- 
versary and manifested their friendly interest in every pos- 
sible way. Thanks are especially due to the members of 
Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church who offered the use 
of their Parish House, and thus enabled us to provide for 
the more than five hundred guests who were seated at the 
banquet with a comfort otherwise impossible. 

The anniversary exercises began with the Communion 
Service, Friday evening, October 30, at which the ancient 
silver cups were used. These were gifts to the church in 
I73i» 1733 and 1768. The beautiful solo by Mrs. S. W. 



INTRODUCTION 21 

Wilder, the tender and appropriate address by Rev. William 
H. Cobb, D.D., the uplifting prayers offered by Rev. Wil- 
liam Ewing, D.D., and Rev. Parris T. Farwell, together with 
the reception of nine new members, made this opening 
service memorable. 

The Order of Exercises was carried out as planned, except 
that Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D., pastor of the Old South 
Church in Boston, who was to have brought the greetings 
of the Boston churches Monday afternoon, was detained 
by a funeral, and his place was filled by the associate pastor 
of the church, Rev. Willis H. Butler. Mr. Butler had been 
assigned the response to the toast "The Freedom of the 
Faith," at the banquet, and this toast was, therefore, 
omitted. 

It was especially gratifying that Rev. Wolcott Calkins, 
D.D,, for many years minister of Eliot Church, Newton, 
was able to be present and to offer the prayer at the Anni- 
versary Service, Sunday morning. 

The celebration reached a fitting climax in the Monday 
evening service. As the great congregation dispersed, all 
felt that the observance of this anniversary had marked an 
important epoch in the life of this ancient church. The 
survey of its honorable and fruitful past, the renewing of 
friendships, the tender memories of by-gone days, the in- 
spiring addresses, the earnest prayers and uplifting songs, — 
all contributed to make the present generation realize 
anew the great tradition to which they have succeeded, and 
to enforce the obligation to maintain those high standards 
of Christian life and service which are the glory of our 
history. 



THE COMMUNION SERVICE 

FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 30, 1914 



THE PRAYERS 

AND 

THE COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS 

BY 

REVEREND WILLIAM H. COBB, D. D, 




Rev. DANIEL LITTLE FURBER, D. D. 



THE PRAYERS AT THE COMMUNION 
SERVICE 



INVOCATION 
Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes 

THOU who art the God of our Fathers and our God, with 
grateful hearts we acknowledge all Thy goodness, and 
we thank Thee for each new revelation of Thine unchang- 
ing love. And now to-night, in this hour, and upon these 
succeeding days, as our thoughts turn with gratitude towards 
the past and with hope towards the future, may all that we 
do, and all that we plan, and all that we think, be directed 
and guided and blessed by Thine own presence and hallowed 
by Thy benediction. 

And unto Thee be all the glory, now and forever, Amen. 

PRAYER BEFORE THE DISTRIBUTION OF 
THE BREAD 

Rev. Parris T. Farwell 

Almighty God, our loving Heavenly Father, upon this 
sacred, joyful occasion we seek Thy blessing. Our hearts 
go back, our thoughts go back, to the time when our Master 
first gathered His disciples about Him in that upper chamber 
so many centuries ago. How many and how great changes 
have taken place since that time ! And we remember how 
He said to those humble men that with great desire He had 
desired to eat with them that feast. We remember how He 
broke the bread and, looking into the faces of those early 
followers. He passed to them the bread and the cup. 

He made them feel that He, Himself, was strengthened 



26 COMMUNION SERVICE 

and comforted by their presence with Him. He not only 
gave to them but He received from them ; He looked into 
their loving hearts and was strengthened while he strength- 
ened them. And we are glad to believe that to-night, after 
these long years have passed, our Master is glad to have us 
meet together in this way, hallowed by the passing of the 
years, — in the same way in which men have met year after 
year in an unbroken succession of years from that time to 
this, to confess joyfully and humbly our faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. May our hearts be glad; may we rejoice in 
this privilege and in the fact that we are members of His 
church; that we can have a share in carrying forward the 
kingdom for which He lived and for which He laid down 
His life. 

We humbly confess our consciousness of our own sin- 
fulness and need. We are not here by any merit of our own, 
but because the Master has invited us. We do the things 
we ought not to do; we leave undone the things we ought to 
do; we sin against Thee, O God, our Father, against our 
fellow men and against ourselves, in thought, in word, and 
in deed; but Thou, O God, dost see that these defects, 
these failings which are ours are like voices calling out to 
Thee for aid, and this aid Thou dost greatly desire to give 
to us. So strengthen us in our weakness; give us guidance 
for our perplexities, give us wisdom for our ignorance and 
help for our helplessness. Guide us and make plain before 
us the way in which we should walk, when our eyes are 
blinded and the way is mysterious before us. 

And now, as we come to Thee, we desire nothing more, 
we can ask nothing greater, than that we may feel that the 
Master is with us as He was with the disciples of old; that 
it is from His hands that we receive the bread and it is by 
His grace that we are able to so partake of it that we shall 
be partaking also of Himself, — we shall partake of His spirit. 
We pray that we may feel that He looks into our hearts and 
reads our secret thoughts and desires, even as He did those 
of His disciples of old ; that we may be glad of the fact that 
He understands us better than we understand ourselves. 



COMMUNION SERVICE 27 

Bless to us this ordinance ; bless to us this bread ; may we 
feed upon the bread which is eternal; may that be accom- 
plished for us this night that was in the thought of Christ 
when He gave this sacramental service to His disciples. 

We ask this, O God, our Father, with the forgiveness of 
all our sins, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. 



PRAYER BEFORE THE DISTRIBUTION OF 
THE WINE 

Rev. William Ewing, D.D. 

We thank Thee, our Father, that Thou art ever mindful 
of our deepest needs. We rejoice that so long ago our 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, gave to us an ordinance so simple 
that fittingly it may be observed in any part of the world 
and in any age. 

We bless Thee for the sacred memories that cluster around 
it, as we think of those disciples bound to us by spiritual 
ties, although living so long ago; and we thank Thee for 
these heroes of the cross of Christ, and the martyrs, who 
remembered Thee in the early ages of the Christian Church 
in the way that we are remembering Thee to-night. 

We thank Thee for the sacred memories that cluster 
around the observance of this ordinance in connection with 
this church of Christ. We remember those who in the early 
days, in hardship, toil and poverty, came together, strength- 
ening each other's faith, quickening each other's zeal and 
laying the foundations for a great church, and receiving 
strength and encouragement as they came around the 
table of our Lord in obedience to His loving, tender request. 

We thank Thee for those who, when this nation was 
coming into being, and in the hour of the nation's peril, 
quickening their courage, their patriotism and their devotion, 
found spiritual strength, confidence and joy as they came 
around the table of our Lord; and we thank Thee for the 
long line of men and women and children who have been 
blessed in the sacred ordinances of this church. 



28 COMMUNION SERVICE 

We thank Thee for those who, coming into the Christian 
life in their tender youth, mingUng their hearts' petitions 
and their thanksgivings with those who had long lived the 
Christian life, were strengthened and quickened. 

We bless Thee for the young men and young women who 
came in obedience to Thy request and found added strength 
and power entering into their manhood and womanhood 
as they, too, partook of the tokens of the body and blood 
of our Lord. 

We bless Thee for the strong men and women, pillars of 
this church, who loved to come around the table, whose 
hearts were quickened, whose zeal and earnestness were 
increased, as they came and united with the children of God 
in this church in the observance of this rite that we commem- 
orate to-night. 

We bless Thee for the aged ones who in declining years 
were comforted and cheered by this goodly fellowship. 
And we bless Thee that we may enter into the rich, the 
blessed inheritance that has come to us through their ob- 
servance, and the added power and strength which has come 
by their testimony in the centuries that are gone. 

We pray that we may enter into the joy and into the 
meaning of this great sacrifice that is exemplified here. 
May our faith be quickened, and our zeal, and our love for 
Thee and for each other, and for the service that Thou hast 
given to us. 

We ask that Thy rich blessing may rest on those that 
have just come into the fellowship of this church; for Thy 
blessing upon the aged, who look forward to the observance 
of this feast with Thee in Thy kingdom ; and upon those who 
are yet bearing the burdens and have the joy of service; 
and upon those who are young and looking forward to long 
years of devotion to Thee in this church, or wherever their 
lot may be cast. May rich blessing rest upon all at this 
time of special interest; may it be a season of helpfulness to 
each one. 

We ask in Christ's name and for His sake, Amen. 



COMMUNION SERVICE 29 

CLOSING PRAYER 
Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes 

We thank Thee, O God, for Thy church, which remains 
steadfast through the ages, though men come and men go; 
though the drops of the river continually pass on into the 
sea, yet the river remains; and the church remains, the 
church of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He loved and for 
which He gave His life ; and now we pray Thee that we who 
are here in this great succession may prove faithful unto our 
inheritance, faithful unto our Lord in this our day and 
generation. 

We ask for Thy special blessing upon these who come to 
join themselves with us in the work and worship of Thy 
Kingdom. May each one of them receive not only the 
formal welcome here at the altar, but the affectionate wel- 
come of our hands and hearts into the common life and 
common service. And above all may each one receive in 
his or her own heart the affectionate welcome of the Lord, 
as for the first time or anew they pledge themselves to His 
blessed service; and so may we and they together, growing 
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, bring 
forth fruit to the honor and glory of His name. And we 
ask it in the name that is above every name, to Whom all 
glory shall be given now and forever, Amen. 



32 COMMUNION SERVICE 

those were brave men and women who had assembled here, 
and John Eliot would strengthen their hearts with the word 
of God, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom." God's good pleasure — 
that was the great foundation of Puritan faith and of Puri- 
tan preaching. Theologians wrestled over it and called it 
the sovereignty of God ; plain people fed upon it and called 
it the providence of God. "Not a sparrow falls without 
Him," Eliot would remind them. "What though some of 
you," he might say, "are called by God's good pleasure to 
cruel sufferings? Behold before your eyes the tokens of a 
greater suffering! What though some of you must even 
lay down your lives? Christ died for us; the disciple is 
not above his Master. Fear not them that kill the body, 
and after that have nothing more that they can do. After 
that, you have a better kingdom than that of our sovereign 
Charles; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom of heaven." 

Now there has come down to us, very distinctly, the way 
in which godly men of that generation were wont to describe 
the glories of heaven. For at the very time when our church 
was founded, John Bunyan, imprisoned in Bedford jail, 
was writing the "Pilgrim's Progress," from which I now 
quote a few familiar words in Christian's talk to Pliable: 
"There," he says, "we shall see the Elders with their golden 
crowns; there we shall see holy virgins with their golden 
harps. There we shall be with seraphims and cherubims, 
creatures that will dazzle your eyes to look on." 

How far away all that seems! as remote, almost, from 
the life of our day as the wilderness itself. Golden crowned 
elders make little appeal to the present age. And we, in 
this church, are not a little flock but well nigh six hundred 
strong. We have no fear of war; we discuss in calmness 
the fortunes of a war thousands of miles away. Every 
throne in Europe, including the throne of England, has 
tottered in revolution during the last two hundred and 
fifty years; but all the while this church has stood firm, a 
self-governing republic, a pure democracy, with equal 
rights for all. What foes have we to face or even to dread? 



COMMUNION SERVICE 33 

But hold, friends; whither are we drifting? No foes, 
indeed! Are we blind also, like the Pharisees of old? 
Would that the prophet Elisha could enter this assembly 
and cry of us as he cried of the Syrians: "Lord, open the 
eyes of these men that they may see themselves in the very 
camp of the enemy!" Even now, while we sit together in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, even here at our sacred 
feast, a foe is stealing in upon us more crafty and deadly 
than those Indian warriors. He finds his hopeful occasion, 
his best chance of success, in this very anniversary; for his 
name is Pride. King Philip slew hundreds but Pride has 
slain hundreds of thousands, from Lucifer and his princes, 
whom Pride cast out of heaven, down through the ages to 
that king who exclaimed: "Is not this great Babylon that I 
have builded by the might of my power and for the honor 
of my majesty?" on to King Herod who gave not God the 
glory, on through a long succession of pontiffs and poten- 
tates down to this our day, when Pride is clothed as an angel 
of light and sits in the chief seats of the sanctuary. It is 
hardly probable that our friends who come to us next Mon- 
day to speak congratulations will warn us against spiritual 
pride; and therefore it behooves us to consider one another 
and exhort one another at the very outset of these me- 
morial days, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for 
we are not ignorant of his devices. And suppose we heed 
the warning and stand on our guard, fronting the foe, and 
determined to resist every encroachment of spiritual pride ; 
there are other enemies that assault us in the rear. Here 
it is covetousness, the root of all evil, there selfishness, its 
poisonous fruit; yonder come envy, hatred and malice and 
all uncharitableness, and behind them all inordinate and 
sinful affections. 

And captains that we thought were dead, 
And dreamers that we thought were dumb, 

And voices that we thought were fled 
Arise and call us, and we come: 

And "Search in thine own soul," they cry, 
"For there, too, lurks thine enemy." 



32 COMMUNION SERVICE 

those were brave men and women who had assembled here, 
and John Ehot would strengthen their hearts with the word 
of God, "Fear not, Httle flock; for it is your Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom." God's good pleasure — 
that was the great foundation of Puritan faith and of Puri- 
tan preaching. Theologians wrestled over it and called it 
the sovereignty of God ; plain people fed upon it and called 
it the providence of God. "Not a sparrow falls without 
Him," Eliot would remind them. "What though some of 
you," he might say, "are called by God's good pleasure to 
cruel sufferings? Behold before your eyes the tokens of a 
greater suffering! What though some of you must even 
lay down your lives? Christ died for us; the disciple is 
not above his Master. Fear not them that kill the body, 
and after that have nothing more that they can do. After 
that, you have a better kingdom than that of our sovereign 
Charles; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom of heaven." 

Now there has come down to us, very distinctly, the way 
in which godly men of that generation were wont to describe 
the glories of heaven. For at the very time when our church 
was founded, John Bunyan, imprisoned in Bedford jail, 
was writing the "Pilgrim's Progress," from which I now 
quote a few familiar words in Christian's talk to Pliable: 
"There," he says, "we shall see the Elders with their golden 
crowns; there we shall see holy virgins with their golden 
harps. There we shall be with seraphims and cherubims, 
creatures that will dazzle your eyes to look on." 

How far away all that seems! as remote, almost, from 
the life of our day as the wilderness itself. Golden crowned 
elders make little appeal to the present age. And we, in 
this church, are not a little flock but well nigh six hundred 
strong. We have no fear of war; we discuss in calmness 
the fortunes of a war thousands of miles away. Every 
throne in Europe, including the throne of England, has 
tottered in revolution during the last two hundred and 
fifty years; but all the while this church has stood firm, a 
self-governing republic, a pure democracy, with equal 
rights for all. What foes have we to face or even to dread? 



COMMUNION SERVICE 33 

But hold, friends; whither are we drifting? No foes, 
indeed! Are we blind also, like the Pharisees of old? 
Would that the prophet EHsha could enter this assembly 
and cry of us as he cried of the Syrians: "Lord, open the 
eyes of these men that they may see themselves in the very 
camp of the enemy!" Even now, while we sit together in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, even here at our sacred 
feast, a foe is stealing in upon us more crafty and deadly 
than those Indian warriors. He finds his hopeful occasion, 
his best chance of success, in this very anniversary; for his 
name is Pride. King Philip slew hundreds but Pride has 
slain hundreds of thousands, from Lucifer and his princes, 
whom Pride cast out of heaven, down through the ages to 
that king who exclaimed: "Is not this great Babylon that I 
have builded by the might of my power and for the honor 
of my majesty?" on to King Herod who gave not God the 
glory, on through a long succession of pontiffs and poten- 
tates down to this our day, when Pride is clothed as an angel 
of light and sits in the chief seats of the sanctuary. It is 
hardly probable that our friends who come to us next Mon- 
day to speak congratulations will warn us against spiritual 
pride; and therefore it behooves us to consider one another 
and exhort one another at the very outset of these me- 
morial days, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for 
we are not ignorant of his devices. And suppose we heed 
the warning and stand on our guard, fronting the foe, and 
determined to resist every encroachment of spiritual pride ; 
there are other enemies that assault us in the rear. Here 
it is covetousness, the root of all evil, there selfishness, its 
poisonous fruit; yonder come envy, hatred and malice and 
all uncharitableness, and behind them all inordinate and 
sinful affections. 

And captains that we thought were dead, 
And dreamers that we thought were dumb, 

And voices that we thought were fled 
Arise and call us, and we come: 

And "Search in thine own soul," they cry, 
"For there, too, lurks thine enemy." 



34 COMMUNION SERVICE 

What must we do to be saved? Ten thousand foes arise, 
and there are only two ways to conquer them. One is to 
stand up in our own strength and fight down every temp- 
tation as it encounters us. That is commendable; that is 
brave work; it is the righteousness of the law; the man that 
doeth these things shall live. But did you ever try to live 
for a single day perfectly pure in heart, absolutely holy in 
word and deed, and all the while relying on yourself alone? 
If you have made that honest attempt, you realize the power 
of your adversaries; you no longer sit down and consult 
whether you be able with ten thousand to meet him that 
cometh against you with twenty thousand. You feel your 
need of an ally that is mightier than all the host of the 
enemy. The good news that God has provided such an 
ally is the gospel, the glorious gospel given unto us by the 
grace of God. And if by grace, then is it no more of works; 
otherwise grace is no more grace. We are a little flock, in 
comparison with the hosts of sin that press so hard; we 
cannot save ourselves; but it is our Father's good pleasure 
to give us salvation. That is what the kingdom means; 
not alone a future heaven but a present salvation. When 
the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord 
shall lift up a standard against him. Jesus Christ is our 
ally and our faithful friend. He sealed his friendship with 
his precious blood. But he rose in power; all power is 
given unto him in heaven and in earth. We celebrate the 
dying love and the rising power of Immanuel, our friend 
who is mighty to save. 

If we had come in here to-night and not a word had been 
spoken; if these mute emblems had been silently given and 
silently received, that very silence would have been elo- 
quent. We should have shown the Lord's death ; we should 
have testified our faith in his living presence, in the grace of 
God that bringeth salvation. This one church of Christ 
has given that testimony, in the communion of the Lord's 
Supper, more than a thousand times in the course of its 
history. We need not go many miles away to find a thou- 
sand sister churches, differing radically in creed and govern- 



COMMUNION SERVICE 35 

ment and forms of worship, but all agreeing to assemble, in 
grateful, reverent love, about the table of our dying Lord, 
all lifting up, as we lift upon our organ front, the sacred 
symbol of the cross, all singing with one heart and one voice 

"In the Cross of Christ I Glory." 

Ascend the stream of history a thousand years, instead 
of two hundred and fifty; you are among the mists of the 
Dark Ages; you are in that century which a great writer 
has called the midnight of the human mind. Densest ig- 
norance, grossest superstition and most grievous wickedness 
prevail. The church herself is in two hostile bands, the 
Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople each 
claiming supremacy; they hurl anathemas at each other. 
But a silver star shines through the dark mist, and its light 
is reflected faintly from the silver vessels of the sacrament. 
For when we ask both Pope and Patriarch the simple ques- 
tion, "What is your hope of salvation?" they answer alike: 
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but 
according to his mercy he saved us." We ask, "Whose 
mercy?" and each of them replies: "The Son of God who 
loved me and gave himself for me." Do you not see, 
friends, that salvation is one and the same, through all 
the ages, and in every clime and tongue? The Moravian 
Brethren went to Greenland in 1733 and labored earnestly 
for five years in utter failure and discouragement, receiving 
only the scorn of the people. But one night, as they tell 
us in their simple narrative. Brother Beck read from the 
Gospel of Luke, to some natives who had looked in on them, 
the story of our Saviour's agony in Gethsemane. Then, 
they say, the Lord opened the heart of one of these visitors 
named Kayarnak, who stepped up to the table and ex- 
claimed, "How is that? Tell me that again, for I too de- 
sire to be saved." Salvation! Oh the joyful sound! 'Twas 
music in their ears. Kayarnak became a Christian and 
gained others for Christ. The gospel melted their hearts 
and in ten years they numbered a hundred and thirty 
Christians. In the year 1900 the Moravians withdrew 



36 COMMUNION SERVICE 

their missionaries from Greenland, because the whole 
country had become Christian. It is the same story from 
Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand and 
Afric's sunny fountains. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the 
world. Lifted up upon the tree, he is drawing all men unto 
him. The kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom it 
is our Father's good pleasure to give to the people of Christ, 
and that not only in outward extension but in inward power. 
The kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed but also like 
leaven. It is hidden, penetrating, transforming the life. 
We need an ally, I said, against the sin which doth so easily 
beset us. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sin of the world. 

Satan cannot harm us when we stand in the shadow of the 
cross. That cross is the death of pride; God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. 
Let us mean it when we shall sing together, " I pour con- 
tempt on all my pride." The cross gives us power to crucify 
also covetousness and selfishness, envy and hatred and all 
our sins; for it makes us new men in Christ Jesus; old things 
are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And 
salvation is even more than this ; it is not simply deliverance, 
but in the glowing words of the apostle, "his divine power 
hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godli- 
ness." The kingdom that our Father's good pleasure gives 
us is no mere negative cutting off of sins; it is a positive 
growing to the measure of the stature of full men in Christ 
Jesus; a growing in grace and in all the fruits of grace; 
love, joy and peace; long-suffering, gentleness, goodness; 
faith, meekness, temperance. If our Father will only 
give us the kingdom of love, we shall conquer the world. 
Hate strews the world with carnage and slaughter; but 
love is mightier than hate, and endureth forever. Do not 
believe men who tell you that Christianity has suffered 
shipwreck because of the turmoil in Europe. There have 
been many times when Christianity seemed nearer downfall 
than it seems in 1914. God's anvil has worn out a hundred 



COMMUNION SERVICE 37 

hammers. " Force and right rule the world ; force till right 
is ready." Our Father can wait; with him a thousand 
years are as one day. Over all the crashing empires and 
all the wrecks of time towers the cross of Christ. A radi- 
ance streams from it that sanctifies bane and blessing, pain 
and pleasure. Let us gladly take up the cross and follow 
Christ. The sacrament is sacramentum, the Roman sol- 
dier's oath of allegiance. We have given Christ our solemn 
pledge this night, as each one in the silence of his heart re- 
newed the covenant at the Lord's table. Let each of us 
translate that pledge into loyalty of service, proclaiming 
with heart and voice : 

Love so amazing, so divine. 
Demands my soul, my life, my all. 



HISTORICAL SERVICE 

SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 1, 1914 



THE PRAYERS 



THE HISTORICAL SERMON 

BT 

THE REVEREND EDWARD MacARTHUR NOYES 

Minister of the Church 



PRAYERS AT THE HISTORICAL SERVICE 



INVOCATION 
Rev. Albert George Bryant 

THOU God of infinite love, who for twenty-five decades 
in this holy place hast taught Thy children the secret 
of a divine life, we thank Thee for what life means to us. 

May these sacred hours now set apart for the commemora- 
tion of all that has happened in the complex life that we 
live be but the inspiration to us to give ourselves with 
utter abandon to assist Thee in the answering of those 
inarticulate prayers of Thy children all over Thy world, 
who at this time out of their infinite pain cry out for brothers 
who know how to love because they have been near their 
God. Into this large companionship with Thyself we ask 
Thee to usher us in these sacred moments, in the name of 
One Who knew how to love persistently : 

Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name. 
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done. In earth as it is in 
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive 
us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 

PRAYER 

Rev. Wolcott Calkins, D.D. 

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all genera- 
tions. A thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday 
when it is past, as a watch in the night. We praise Thee, 
we magnify Thy holy name, and we will declare Thy glory 
throughout all generations. 



42 HISTORICAL SERVICE 

We come before Thee this morning to consider the years 
of ancient times, for the multitude of years should teach 
wisdom; and since Thou hast granted to this beloved 
church the guidance of men who have loved Thy holy 
word we come to thank Thee for their services, to recall all 
their profound teaching, and to follow them as they followed 
Christ through all these generations. 

We bring the two hundred and fifty years of our pilgrim- 
age as a church of God before Thee, and we remember with 
awe the two hundred and fifty censers which were brought 
into Thy presence ages ago: O Lord our God, we pour out 
our thanksgivings before Thee that there has never been 
any strange fire in the censers from which our worship has 
ascended to the throne of grace. For the truth as it is in 
Christ Jesus, steadfastly preached to our fathers, to us, to 
our children and children's children, by the ten men whom 
Thou hast called to stand in this place, we praise Thee, we 
bless Thee, we magnify Thy holy name and we beseech Thee 
to revive Thy work in the midst of the years. Help us who 
stand in the holy place proclaiming the everlasting Gospel 
to remember what we owe to our fathers in the generations 
that are past; and grant us Thy grace to be faithful to the 
truth as it has been revealed in Thy holy word, and to re- 
member the injunction of our Pilgrim Fathers to welcome 
always the light that shall continually break forth from the 
sacred pages. 

Lord, if it please Thee, we humbly beseech Thee speedily 
to bind Satan, not for a hundred years but for the "thou- 
sand years," for the endless generations; we pray for the 
millennium, for peace with righteousness; defend our coun- 
try from all conspiracies, from all wars and dissensions, 
and keep this old church, we beseech Thee, as a citadel of 
Thy presence and a source of the endless grace of God 
going forth to all generations. 

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly 
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that 
is working in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ 
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. 




Rev. EDWARD MacARTHUR NOYES 



HISTORICAL SERMON 



I Kings xxi: 3 — "The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the 
inheritance of my fathers unto thee." 

nn HIS is a just and natural sentiment. Naboth's 
-■■ indignant refusal to sell to king Ahab the home 
of his fathers is approved by all serious and earnest 
men. It recognizes the debt of every generation to 
the past, and the obligation to hand on to its suc- 
cessors the undiminished heritage. There is an old 
grape-vine in Hampton Court from whose branches 
Oliver Cromwell and John Milton plucked the purple 
clusters. It still lives and every autumn is richly 
laden with abundant fruit. But the vine does not 
belong to England's king. It is his only to enjoy the 
grapes, prune the branches, and fertilize the roots. 
The vine belongs to generations yet unborn. The 
political and social institutions, the domestic customs, 
moral and ethical ideals, and the religious faith, by 
which our lives are moulded, are our inheritance from 
the fathers. Degenerate sons, indeed, are we, if we 
fail gratefully to recognize our indebtedness to their 
fidelity, and our obligation to preserve, maintain, and 
develop this precious heritage, and hand it on to our 
children. 

As Naboth may have climbed the tower of his 
vineyard, tempted by the king's offer, and knowing 
that refusal would be at the hazard of his life, and 
yet as he looked over the fields made sacred by the 
toil and sacrifice of his fathers, resolved to die rather 



44 HISTORICAL SERMON 

than give them up to royal greed; so this morning, 
from the eminence of two hundred and fifty years of 
history, we survey our inheritance in this ancient 
church. Shall we not realize anew how it has been 
consecrated by the devotion of eight successive gen- 
erations, and with loyal hearts declare, "The Lord 
forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my 
fathers unto thee"? 

The exact date when the church was organized was 
July 20, 1664, old style. The summer vacation was 
unknown to that generation, but the modern annual 
exodus led us to postpone the observance until this 
more convenient season. The two hundredth anni- 
versary fell in wartime, in 1864, when there was no 
heart for historical celebrations, and some doubt 
whether or not we were to have any more national 
history to celebrate. But in October, 1889, the two 
hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary was fittingly 
observed. So thoroughly and adequately was the 
history of the church presented in the discourses of 
Dr. Furber and Mr. Holmes, and the addresses of the 
other speakers, and so complete and admirable is the 
volume which records this celebration, that there is 
no need for me to traverse again this familiar ground. 
It would be ungracious to weary you with the repe- 
tition of the details of our annals. But, while I shall not 
attempt to trace minutely the history of the church, 
year by year, or even to describe the successive stages 
of its growth, I do desire to remind you of certain per- 
manent characteristics. For a church is like an in- 
dividual whose body is constantly changing, but whose 
spirit abides the same. The membership of a church 
is ever being renewed, but its character persists from 
year to year, in spite of outward changes. Certain 
traits which were prominent in early days have marked 



HISTORICAL SERMON 45 

its whole career, and are still readily discernible. In 
mechanics we are taught that a body set in motion 
tends to follow the initial direction in a straight line 
unless diverted by some new and more powerful force. 
Those sturdy pioneers who settled these fertile valleys 
gave to this church an impulse which it has tended to 
follow. John Fiske has called the years 1783 to 1789 
the "Critical Period of American History." The 
political ideals then adopted have dominated the 
national development. The early years are apt to be 
decisive in the life of a man or an institution, deter- 
mining in large measure the direction of later activi- 
ties. Our interest in this hour, therefore, is in the 
study of corporate biography, tracing in the life of 
this church the development of some of its marked 
characteristics. 

Every biography begins with a sketch of the hero's 
ancestry. Heredity is appealed to for an explanation 
of his major impulses. Nor can we hope to under- 
stand an institution without some knowledge of the 
life from which it sprang. Our immediate family his- 
tory begins in Cambridge. Newton was originally a 
part of Cambridge, known as Cambridge Village, and 
from 1639, when the first settler, Dea. John Jackson, 
set up his home here, until 1660, when the first meet- 
ing-house was built, the people went to Cambridge to 
church, and not until 1661 were they released from pay- 
ing rates for the support of worship there. We may 
well be proud of our family relationship to the First 
Church in Cambridge with its noble history. It was 
no small privilege to sit under the preaching of the 
"faithful and famous Shepard" and his successor, 
the "matchless Mitchel." It is to be remembered 
that those who organized this church were, for the 
most part, young people. Of the forty male members, 



46 HISTORICAL SERMON 

a few had passed middle life, but most of the heads of 
families were under forty-five. Thirteen young men, 
twenty-one years of age or more, joined with their 
fathers on the day of organization; and one youth, at 
least, who afterward became a deacon, was only nine- 
teen. The minister, ordained that same day, was only 
twenty-eight years old. This was from the begin- 
ning a church for young people, and especially for 
young men, and such it has always remained. All 
these young people had grown up in the Cambridge 
church, and the learning and piety of the famous men 
who ministered there must have made its impress 
upon them. 

But while our immediate family history begins in 
Cambridge, and we can trace the origin of certain 
recognized influences in the lives of the fathers, we 
must go much farther afield for the sources of the spirit 
which animated them, nor shall we be able accurately 
to locate them amid the transforming mists of time. 
That is true, in large measure, of course, of every life. 
Professor Drummond, in his "Ascent of Man," de- 
scribes the building up of the human body through the 
long ages, and tells us that the lower orders of nature 
have each contributed to the completion of the mar- 
velous structure in which we dwell. In like manner, 
John George Romanes, in his "Mental Evolution in 
Man," traces the slow development of mind, and em- 
phasizes the gifts which past ages have made to the 
evolution of the intellect and the storing of its treas- 
ures. How infinitely more precious the gifts of those 
unknown ancestors who contributed to the slow de- 
velopment of our moral and spiritual faculties, the 
parents of the soul ! We believe that God made man 
in His own image, and that these supreme gifts are 
His endowment. But, if we are to accept the modern 



HISTORICAL SERMON 47 

scientific statements of the methods by which God 
bestowed His bounty upon us, it fills the soul with a 
new sense of obligation to the unknown past. In 
the background of every life moves this vast, invisible 
company, like the procession of worshippers in Judah's 
ancient temple on her Feast days, each bearing his 
gift to lay upon the altar, to enrich and adorn the 
palace of the soul. Your moral sensitiveness, your 
judicial temper, your unselfish sympathy, the honesty 
on which you pride yourself, are due in some measure 
to the struggles of those unknown progenitors who 
fought against the beast within and conquered for 
your sake. An age like ours, restless, prodigal, ve- 
hement in its self-confidence, may well give sober 
recognition to its debt to a more austere and temper- 
ate past for the gifts it holds so lightly. 

While this is true, in some measure, of every life 
and every age, it is especially true of the first settlers 
in this land that they brought hither much of greatest 
value, whose origin they could not have traced. 
They came out of lands which had been profoundly 
moved by vast moral and political forces. They bore 
in their very blood the distilled essence of a thousand 
struggles for faith and freedom. Through them mar- 
tyrs and prophets reached out to these virgin fields 
to realize here their glowing visions. The early set- 
tlers of Newton were of sturdy English stock, as their 
names bear witness: Clements, Druce, Fuller, Ham- 
mond, Hyde, Jackson, Kenrick, Park, Parker, Prentice, 
Trowbridge, Ward, Williams, Wiswall. How many 
of these names are interwoven with all our civil and 
religious history! They were plain, practical folk, 
almost entirely from the middle class, hardworking. 
God-fearing, Bible-reading people, eager for a larger 
opportunity. But they brought with them, perhaps 



48 HISTORICAL SERMON 

unconsciously, what Dr. Storrs has called, in one of 
his great orations, "the power and promise from the 
greatest age of European advancement." It was in 
1664, the very date of the founding of this church, 
that New Amsterdam was captured by the English 
and became New York, and the English domination 
of the colonies was made complete. The metropolis 
is celebrating this very week the three hundredth 
anniversary of the beginnings of its commerical life, 
when Adrian Block built on Manhattan Island its 
first small vessel, and fitly named it The Restless. 
Glance for a moment at the century that preceded the 
founding of this church, and the capture of New Am- 
sterdam, from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 
1558. It saw the flowering of art in southern Europe. 
It saw Tasso crowned and Galileo imprisoned. Tin- 
toretto, Paul Veronese, Titian, Guido Reni, Salvator 
Rosa and Michael Angelo are among the stars of 
greater magnitude in its artistic sky. It saw the dome 
of St. Peter's finished. Cervantes, Calderon, Vel- 
asquez and Lope de Vega adorned the annals of Spain 
during these golden years. In northern Europe, such 
names as Kepler, Moliere, Racine, Pascal, Rubens 
and Rembrandt, Van Dyke and Claude Lorraine, 
Spenser, Hooker, Sidney, Milton, Shakspere, and 
all the lesser lights of the Elizabethan glory belong 
to its renown. Descartes and Leibnitz, Newton, Gro- 
tius, and Spinoza opened new paths for human 
thought. What a marvelous era! Before the awak- 
ened eyes of humanity new worlds in art, in philoso- 
phy, in literature, in commerce, in trade and in po- 
litical expansion were opening. It was an age to 
quicken the imagination and stimulate men to great 
daring and great achievement. Especially did this 
munificent, heroic century witness the decay of author- 



HISTORICAL SERMON 49 

ity and the swift advance of popular power. It was 
in 1649, only fifteen years before this church was 
organized, that Charles the First was beheaded, and 
for the first time in history the English Commons 
dared to claim supremacy above royalty itself. The 
"divine right of Kings" was henceforth, for English- 
men, only a memory. Hidden forces suddenly found 
expression. The settlement of America had expanded 
the world to the minds of Englishmen. The popular 
imagination was excited by tales of sea-faring adven- 
ture and rich discoveries. Nothing seemed impossible 
or incredible. Above all it was the age of the Refor- 
mation, when religion had become again the supreme 
interest of men. The immediate privilege and the 
constant obligation of every man to come to God, 
without the intervention of priest or ceremony; the 
assurance of forgiveness through the cross, and the 
consequent absolute equality of all souls before God; 
the mighty promises of fellowship with the highest, 
and the dignity of that humanity to which so unspeak- 
able a right could be granted; these momentous truths 
came upon the minds of men like a revelation from 
heaven, and stirred human society to the depths. No 
longer was the Bible in the hands of scholars alone, 
but in the homes and hearts of the people, and true 
to the prophetic description of Jeremiah, the Word of 
God became a fire and a hammer, shattering the 
strength of ancient tyrannies, and releasing mighty 
impulses upon the world. 

Such was the century out of whose abundant life 
the early settlers of this land came. This was their 
birth-period. Its eager impulses came with them. 
They brought its vigor, its energy, its open-mindedness 
to new truth, its confident daring in the undertaking 
of new enterprises. They came largely because they 



50 HISTORICAL SERMON 

represented this spirit; because they felt that there 
was Httle hope that it was longer to be the ruling tem- 
per of the England they loved; because they preferred 
the hardships of the wilderness to life in a land where 
the reaction to civil and religious tyranny held sway. 
They had dared to go back of ecclesiastical tradi- 
tions and established hierarchies and adopt the New 
Testament model for their church organization. But 
the old world had no welcome for this great ideal of 
a free church, where all the people are priests, the 
church of the Acts of the Apostles, of the First 
Epistle of Peter, and of the Apocalypse. Charles 
the Second was on the throne in 1664, and some 
of the founders of this church came directly from 
England, in search of a spiritual climate more con- 
genial to their souls than England promised under the 
Restoration. 

Coming out from such an era, and trained by such 
experiences, what manner of men were those who here 
covenanted to walk together in Christian fellowship, 
and what are the characteristics of the church they 
established? 

First: We Recall Their Intensity of Religious Conviction. 

In his election sermon, 1677, Dr. Increase Mather 
said: "It was love to God and to Jesus Christ which 
brought our fathers into this wilderness." President 
Stiles of Yale College, in 1783, thus stated the historic 
fact: "It is certain that civil dominion was but the 
second motive, religion the primary one, with our an- 
cestors in coming hither and settling this land." 
People who leave home and country for religion's sake 
usually have pretty definite and positive convictions. 
Nothing was more characteristic of the Puritans than 
their fidelity to the truth as they saw it, and their 



HISTORICAL SERMON 5I 

determination to maintain, defend, and proclaim it, 
at any cost. The founders of this church were thor- 
ough Puritans. They believed much and they be- 
lieved it strongly. The forms of statement have 
varied during these two and a half centuries, but 
through all the philosophical, theological, and political 
storms of this long period of time, this church has been 
marked by steadfastness and earnestness of convic- 
tion. 

The doctrinal belief in the early days was strongly 
Calvinistic. The Westminster Confession, issued in 
1646, was practically adopted by the Congregational 
churches of England, as their doctrinal symbol, in 
The Savoy Declaration • of 1658; and this, in turn, 
with slight modifications, was adopted as a statement 
of faith by The Reforming Synod, in Boston, in 1680. 
The first article of the Covenant of this church, sol- 
emnly renewed, 1770, reads as follows: "Having pe- 
rused, or heard, the Confession of Faith put forth by 
the synod of Churches, held in Boston, New England, 
1680, we do heartily close in with it, for the substance 
of it, and promise to stand by, maintain, and (if need 
be) contend for the faith therein delivered to the 
people of God, and if any among us should go about 
to undermine it, we will bear a due testimony against 
them." 

By this phrase, "for the substance of it," they 
reserved for themselves some liberty of interpretation. 
We should claim for ourselves a larger liberty, no 
doubt, in the interpretation of its doctrines, but its 
essentials still command our assent. Again in 1783, 
the church, by formal vote, reaffirmed its loyalty to 
this confession of faith. When the great Unitarian 
controversy arose, and out of three hundred and 
sixty-one Congregational churches in Massachusetts, 



52 HISTORICAL SERMON 

ninety-six became Unitarian, and thirty more were so 
nearly so that those who held to the old faith were 
compelled to withdraw and form new organizations, 
this church and its daughter in West Newton adhered 
to the doctrines of the fathers. This is the more re- 
markable when we remember the strength of the local 
influence. All the Boston churches but one became 
Unitarian, and the neighboring churches in Roxbury, 
Dorchester, Watertown, Waltham, Dedham, Brook- 
line, and Brighton. 

In 1828, a committee of three, WiUiam Jackson, 
Elijah F, Woodward, and Asa Cook, presented a re- 
port to the church on a case of discipline, in which 
those members were severely censured who were in 
the habit of leaving "their own meeting on the Sab- 
bath, go, some of them, to places where the fundamen- 
tal truths of the gospel, as embraced by this church, 
are opposed and denied, where they who preach de- 
clare there is no need of a radical change of heart, that 
Christ did not die for our sins, and that he is not God, 
and that all will be saved, both righteous and wicked." 
This report was twice read and discussed and then 
unanimously adopted. There is justice in Dr. Fur- 
ber's comment, in his historical discourse twenty-five 
years ago: "It has been said by some that if Dr. 
Homer had become a Unitarian, he would have car- 
ried the church with him. This vote does not look 
as if he would." 

We live in a new world of thought. What shall we 
say of this Calvinism of our fathers? The historians 
are ready enough now to praise its political and social 
influence. David Hume, certainly no partial critic, 
says that England owes all the liberty she has to the 
Calvinistic Puritans. James Anthony Froude, in 
what is perhaps his most familiar essay, has exhibited 



HISTORICAL SERMON 53 

the mighty leverage of this faith, Hfting the world to 
new ideals of civil liberty. John Fiske calls the theol- 
ogy of Calvin one of the longest steps mankind ever 
took towards personal freedom. Lord Macaulay, 
who hated the Puritans if ever anyone did, says that 
they were the most remarkable body of men that the 
world has ever produced. What made them remark- 
able was their religion, and, in large measure, their 
Calvinism. However unattractive it may seem to us 
in many aspects, it was a tremendous power in the 
creation of the modern world. 

But what of it as a system of religious belief, a dis- 
cipline for the soul? It assuredly made stalwart Chris- 
tians and bold and profound thinkers. Those who 
fed on its strong meat were men indeed. No theme 
was too high or too profound for their discussion. 
They contended, for example, over different theories 
of the origin and explanation of sin in a moral universe, 
a discussion of which Dr. Munger says, in his "Life of 
Bushnell": "It was a subject which Christ waived; 
but the New England theologians waived nothing." 
The constant pondering of weighty themes made not 
only deep thinkers, but men of strenuous will to carry 
out what they deemed the divine purpose. 

But defective vision and partial and exaggerated 
statement are inevitable in human systems. The 
reaction from the rigors of Calvinism was sure to 
come. I suppose there is nobody in this audience 
who would subscribe to the five points of Calvinism 
as John Calvin stated them. We do not hold, as an 
article of faith, absolute and unconditioned predesti- 
nation, independent of faith or works on the part of 
the elect, with reprobation of the rest of mankind, 
equally without regard to their demerit. We do not 
believe in a limited atonement, nor accept the compen- 



54 HISTORICAL SERMON 

sation theory of its efficacy. We cannot affirm that 
all men are totally and entirely depraved, with utter 
inability to all spiritual good, and that infants are as 
guilty in the eyes of infinite justice as hardened sinners. 
Nor do we believe that divine grace is irresistible, nor 
that the saints, unconditionally elected, absolutely 
purchased by the death of Christ, and irresistibly 
called by the Holy Spirit, cannot possibly be turned 
aside from the life of grace and ultimate salvation. 

Nevertheless, while these extreme statements of 
doctrine are repugnant to us, the essential truths of 
that mighty faith are still our heritage. The iron is 
in our blood; we cannot ignore it, and would not, if we 
could. We, too, believe in a mighty God, who works 
out His sovereign purposes in this world of time, and 
all our modern scientific advance enlarges our con- 
ceptions of His mind and will. We, too, believe in 
human sin as one of the ultimate facts of life, and in 
the supreme need of some power greater and higher 
than ourselves to enter into these poor, weak lives of 
ours and redeem them. Their statements of the 
atonement we cannot accept, but in the redemptive 
love of God, which lifts men out of the mire of sin and 
selfishness and transforms them into the divine image, 
we believe as firmly as ever they did. We find the 
essence of the divine character in love, where they 
found it in will; we lay greater emphasis on reason in 
the Godhead than on power; much of their theology 
seems to us mechanical and some of their speculations 
absurd and childish, mingled with much that is 
weighty and worthy; but we cannot forget that 
through their toil of thought we have entered into 
our religious conceptions. They who dwell in fer- 
tile valleys, enriched by ever-flowing streams, may 
well recall with gratitude the rugged, snow-covered 



HISTORICAL SERMON 55 

heights, where those perennial fountains have their 
source. 

However much we may differ with the fathers in our 
statements of religious truth, I trust that in these 
days, as in all the history of this church, we are one 
with them in holding our views of truth in reasoned 
and settled conviction, with thorough persuasion and 
heartfelt avowal. The Puritan spirit does not con- 
sist, as we are often reminded, in the correctness of 
the views of truth which they held, but in the vigor 
of intellectual grasp and the fidelity of moral commit- 
tal with which those conceptions of truth were es- 
poused. In such absolute surrender to the truth as 
one sees it there is always dignity and power. In 
their day, the danger was intolerance. In ours, it 
lies in the tendency to indifference, to hold all truth 
lightly, and to wear our allegiance to it as an easy 
yoke. To them, religion was the supreme interest. 
To know God's purpose and fulfil it was the highest 
concern. In the careless luxury of our time it is well 
to remind ourselves of "the unyielding grapple of 
their tough wills," and gird ourselves anew for stead- 
fast service. We are nurtured in a milder faith than 
theirs. May we hold it with a like firm conviction 
atid constant devotion. 

Second: A Second Characteristic Is the Cordial and en- 
during Sympathy between the Church and Its 
Ministers. 

Ten ministers have served for two and a half cen- 
turies. Seven were ordained here; six labored here 
during their entire ministry; and seven are buried 
among the people whom they loved. During all this 
long period, there is no record of friction or misun- 
derstanding between minister and people. 



56 HISTORICAL SERMON 

The first minister, John Eliot, Jr., lived long enough 
to win all hearts. But it was six years before the 
church settled his successor, and meanwhile their 
quarrels and divisions brought upon them the rebuke 
of the General Court, 

Yet when Nehemiah Hobart began his ministry, all 
parties cordially united under his leadership, and for 
forty years they lived together in unbroken harmony. 

When the third minister was chosen, one of the can- 
didates was Edward Holyoke, afterwards president 
of Harvard College, but the people preferred the 
youthful John Cotton. The man who was good 
enough to be president of Harvard was not good 
enough to be the minister of the First Church in 
Newton. 

It is evident that Mr. Cotton was very earnestly 
desired, for the record of the town meeting, March 22, 
1 714, reads: "John Cotton was chosen by a clear vote, 
to be their Minister. Voted, his salary to be eighty 
pounds, and one hundred pounds for his encourage- 
ment." Again, in the records of May 10, 1714, 
"Voted, to give fifty pounds more, for Mr. Cotton's 
encouragement to settle among us, as our Pastor, 
besides the one hundred pounds before voted. Also 
voted, to add to his salary at any time, and from time 
to time, such further supplies as he shall stand in need 
of, for his honourable support." Mr. Cotton was 
"encouraged" by these marks of confidence to accept 
the call, and he must have been still more encouraged 
when the whole town came out in procession to wel- 
come him, a youth of twenty-one. The ministry so 
auspiciously begun was greatly blessed for forty-two 
years. In 1728-29, fifty members were added within 
four months, and, in 1741-42, one hundred and four 
were received during ten months. Edward Jackson 



HISTORICAL SERMON 57 

in 1 68 1 bequeathed to Cambridge Village about thirty- 
one and a half acres of land, which, he says, "shall be 
for the use of the Ministry in this Village forever." 
In 1740 Deacon John Staples left by will, "to the 
Church of Christ, in Newton, seventeen acres of land 
for and towards the support of the ministerial fire." 
I have been interested in the history of that minis- 
terial wood-lot. I find that the Baptists in 1793 pe- 
titioned for a part of the wood for their minister, and 
their request was declined. Then the Second Church 
wanted some of it, and received one-third. But in 
1805 the wood was cut and sold for one hundred dol- 
lars, which sum went into the building-fund for the 
new meeting-house. 

But if the town and the people thus treated their 
ministers generously, their spiritual leaders met them 
in the same spirit. In his acceptance of their call to 
the pastorate, Jonas Meriam wrote, in 1758: "And 
as, on the one hand, I desire no more for my sup- 
port than will enable me to live comfortably, and to 
discharge the duties of my station without too much 
wordly encumbrance; so, on the other, I doubt not 
that I may depend on your liberality in case of need, 
for such further assistance as you shall judge neces- 
sary for my comfort. But my chief concern is, that 
I may be made an instrument of turning many to 
righteousness, so that you and I may have abund- 
ant reason to rejoice together in mutual edification 
here, and everlasting fellowship hereafter." 

When Jonathan Homer was called, in 1781, the 
parish voted two hundred pounds to "encourage Mr. 
Homer to settle in the ministry," but he afterwards 
"generously relinquished fifty pounds of the same, for 
which the Parish voted him thanks." In his letter 
accepting the call to the pastorate, Dr. Homer expressed 



58 HISTORICAL SERMON 

the hope "that Heaven will excite and enable you 
and me, uniformly and faithfully, to fulfil our various 
mutual duties." His peaceful and fruitful ministry of 
fifty-seven years, the longest in our history, bears 
witness how richly that hope was fulfilled. Rev. 
James Bates served as colleague with Dr. Homer for 
eleven years, and was dismissed the same day. He 
was almost morbidly conscientious and self-distrustful, 
and apparently was unwilling to undertake alone the 
responsibilities of the parish. 

William Bushnell, who followed them, stayed but 
four years, but I cannot find that there was any lack 
of cordiality between him and the church. During 
his ministry Eliot Church was formed, taking thirty- 
four of our members, among them some of the most 
active and efficient, and Deacon William Jackson, the 
leading man not only in the church, but in the town. 
This church was left so weak and discouraged that the 
question of its continuance was raised, and Mr. Bush- 
nell left, so far as is now known, because he had lost 
courage and had little hope for the future of the 
church. 

Of the ministry of Dr. Furber for thirty-five years, 
during which the meeting-house was twice enlarged, 
and the chapel built and extended; and of Mr. Holmes, 
for ten years, I need not speak. There are many here 
who can bear witness to the affectionate relations be- 
tween these ministers and the church, and of the 
loving remembrance in which they are held. This 
unbroken tradition of affectionate and cordial co- 
operation between the church and its ministers, with 
no trace of mutual suspicion, distrust, or alienation, 
is a unique and precious heritage. 



HISTORICAL SERMON 59 

Third: A Third Characteristic of this Church Is Its 
Charity for Those of Other Faiths. 

Tolerance was not a common virtue with the Puri- 
tans. Intensity and narrowness have a mutual rela- 
tion. While the Pilgrims of Plymouth were tolerant 
far in advance of their age, the Puritans of Boston 
and vicinity were as zealous advocates of uniformity 
as those from whose tyranny they had fled. They 
treated the Quakers with severity, and drove Roger 
Williams into exile. But the Quakers of that day were 
a trying people to live with. 

It was in 1648 that George Fox began to preach in 
England his doctrine of the "Inner Light," that God 
speaks directly to each soul for guidance not only in 
religion, but in all human affairs. It was "opened" 
to him, to use his own phrase, that many of the ac- 
cepted doctrines of the Puritans were not true. He 
declared that all clergy were man-made and without 
authority, that whoever received the inward light 
might preach, when and where he pleased. No 
wonder that churches, supported by the compulsory 
payment of taxes, called him a revolutionist. He also 
condemned the established usages of society, forbade 
oaths in court, the bearing of arms, the observance 
of holidays, all adornment of dress, and all games and 
sports. Some of his followers, who lacked his deep 
piety and good sense, claimed the authority of an im- 
mediate revelation for doctrines that startled and 
shocked the world, even teaching that in their inno- 
cence they might go naked in the streets. The wildest 
and most fanatical views were heralded by excited and 
unbalanced minds. Small wonder that the people of 
New England, who heard of all this din and stir across 
the water, had a cold welcome for the Quakers when 



60 HISTORICAL SERMON 

they came. Nor did their behavior invite a sym- 
pathetic hearing. 

One of them went into the Old South Church in 
Boston one Sunday and broke two bottles, saying to 
the minister as he did it, "Thus shall the Lord 
break you." They were very different from the 
Quakers of later generations. I have no doubt that 
we should find them difficult to deal with now. 

As for Roger Williams, he was banished not because 
he was a Baptist, for he did not become a Baptist 
until later, but because he was a cantankerous and re- 
bellious citizen, so loyal to his conscience that he would 
do what he thought was right regardless of conse- 
quences. He was accurately described by John 
Quincy Adams as "conscientiously contentious." 

Dr. Jefferson reminds us that a new and small com- 
munity cannot treat such a man with amused toler- 
ance. "He would cause us no concern to-day. The 
ship of state has become an ocean liner, and all sorts 
of Roger Williamses can jump and run upon the deck 
. . . while the old ship drives steadily onward^ 
unmoved by the antics of a few unbalanced passengers. 
But in 1635 Massachusetts was a little row-boat on an 
angry and dangerous sea. . . . Finding all their 
counsels and their prayers in vain they told him he 
must get into another boat and allow them to go on 
without him." ^ 

I suppose that the people of Newton would have 
been no more tolerant than the people of Boston in 
those early days, but happily there was no occasion to 
test their temper in this respect. But when the 
Baptist Church was formed here in 1780, and the 



1 Sermon on "The Puritans of New England," December 20, I903» 
by Charles E. Jefferson, D.D. 



HISTORICAL SERMON 6l 

Other denominations followed in due time, the old 
church was ready to give them cordial welcome. 

One of the pleasantest things in our history is the 
life-long friendship between Dr. Homer and Father 
Grafton of the Baptist Church, and it is fitting that 
Homer and Grafton streets, in close proximity, should 
preserve their names. It is pleasant to think of Father 
Grafton dismissing his congregation on the Sunday 
after the death of Dr. Homer's only son, in order that 
he might come and sit in the pulpit with his afflicted 
friend and offer a prayer of consolation. 

A similar friendship existed between Dr. Furber 
and Dr. Hovey, the president of Newton Theological 
Institution. CoUegemates at Dartmouth, they spent 
their lives together side by side, in delightful fellow- 
ship, to which their different denominational loyalty 
was no barrier. Professor Stearns and Professor 
Hackett were also close friends of Dr. Furber, and the 
latter was his companion when he went to Europe. 
At Mrs. Furber's funeral. Dr. Stearns sat with his 
arm about Dr. Furber, as if to sustain him in his great 
sorrow. 

The last public address which Dr. Furber made was 
in the Baptist Church, in memory of the late Dr. S. F. 
Smith, at the dedication of the chime of bells, and it 
was a fitting tribute to his memory that the chimes 
were rung as his funeral procession passed the build- 
ing. The delightful spirit of Christian co-operation 
between the churches, which is such a marked feature 
of the religious life of this community, is due in no 
small measure to the spirit of tolerance and Christian 
love, which actuated the ministers of this Church, 
and which, through their teaching, the people have 
cherished. 



62 HISTORICAL SERMON 

Fourth: A Fourth Characteristic of the Church Has 
Been Its Missionary Interest and Activity. 

Perhaps this was partly due to the impetus given 
by the first minister, John EHot, Jr. He had preached 
among the Indians and was much beloved by them, 
and had assisted his father, the famous apostle to the 
Indians, in the preparation of the Indian Bible. 
After he was settled here he often preached to the 
neighboring tribes. Dr. Hobart, the second pastor, 
was related to David Brainerd, the famous missionary. 

Rev. Joseph Park, great-grandson of one of our 
earliest members, went as a missionary to the Indians 
at Westerly, Rhode Island. Abigail Williams, grand- 
daughter of one of the early deacons, married John 
Sergeant, a missionary to the Housatonic Indians, 
and their son gave his life to the same cause. Rev. 
Increase Sumner Davis went into home mission 
work in New Hampshire. In later years, we have 
sent out Harriet N. Childs to central Turkey, where 
Mary Isabella W^ard now continues her work; Bertha 
Robertson to Georgia, Alice Estelle Clark to Ten- 
nessee, Lena Lindeman to North Dakota, where 
she married Joseph Ward, a teacher in the Indian 
school at Oahe, and Sarah L. Smith, now Mrs. Capt. 
Garland, to Micronesia. Two daughters of Deacon 
Samuel Ward are now in the Japan mission, Mrs. 
Lombard and Mrs. Dunning, where Rev. Edward 
S. Cobb, a son of Rev. WiUiam H. Cobb, D.D., of our 
membership, is a fellow-worker. For many years 
Langdon S. Ward, treasurer of the American Board, 
was a deacon of this church. Of his children, Paul 
taught for a time at Robert College; Mary Isabella 
Ward and Dr. Edwin St. John Ward are in the Turkish 
Empire; Ruth and Laura are in China; Earl Ward has 
also served for a time in the Turkish mission, and Mark 



HISTORICAL SERMON 63 

Ward is now under appointment to the same field. 
Miss Anna Cobb is now teaching in a mission school 
at Hindman, Kentucky. Dr. George M. Boynton of 
the Sunday-school Society, Rev. Frank L. Ferguson 
of the Education Society, and other secretaries have 
made their home with us, and we now number among 
our members, Dr. James L. Barton of the American 
Board, and Dr. William Ewing and Rev. Parris T. 
Farwell of the Sunday-school Society. Mrs. Capron, 
once a missionary in India, formerly was in our mem- 
bership and Mrs. T. Snell Smith, from the Ceylon 
mission, now abides with us. 

The missionary spirit has thus been fostered by 
personal relations with many missionaries and mis- 
sionary leaders. As early as 1826 a child was adopted 
in Ceylon, bearing the name of Jonathan Homer, and 
another in the Choctaw nation, named for Mrs. 
Homer. Thus early did the church begin to have its 
own representatives on mission soil, a policy which it 
still maintains. Rev. Otis Cary, D.D., and Mrs. 
Cary are our official representatives in Japan, and 
Miss Diantha L. Dewey in Turkey. We have had as 
many as five missionaries and Bible readers at work 
at the same time in foreign fields, supported by this 
church and the ladies connected with it. If the gifts 
for missions during the life of the church could be 
tabulated, the total would be a very large sum. 
They have amounted to nearly $150,000 in the last 
tu^enty years. It is a great blessing for a church to 
have the missionary spirit impressed upon it at the 
beginning, and to be kept in vital touch with mission 
work through living representatives. We shall be 
false, indeed, to our history and traditions, if we ever 
cease to pray and labor for Christian missions at home 
and abroad. 



64 HISTORICAL SERMON 

The close connection of this church with the found- 
ing of two of our missionary societies demands a 
passing notice. The third deacon of this church was 
Isaac WilUams, His grandson, EHsha, was rector of 
Yale College. Another grandson, Col. Ephraim, 
founded Williams College, where the American Board 
was prayed into existence at the haystack meeting. 
It is hardly too much to say that the beginnings of our 
greatest missionary society were in the farmhouse of 
Deacon Isaac Williams and his good wife, Judith 
Cooper, in their godly life and earnest prayers. But 
our connection with the American Missionary Asso- 
ciation is more direct. Deacon William Jackson was 
one of the most active in its formation and was its 
first president, holding that office for eight years. 

Fifth: The Mention of These Two Deacons Reminds Us 
of Another Feature of Our Church Life — The 
Number of Able and Energetic Laymen Who Have 
Served in It. 

Especially has it had a remarkable succession of 
deacons, and one might well covet a place in that 
famous line. Perhaps the most remarkable was 
William Jackson. Interested in every good cause, he 
organized the first temperance society in town, in 
1826, and advocated the unpopular reform to such 
good effect that the majority of the voters became 
total abstainers and sent Deacon Jackson to the Gen- 
eral Court as representative. Becoming convinced 
that Free Masonry was unduly influencing both the 
courts and the legislature, he became a strong Anti- 
Mason, and as such was twice elected to Congress. 
In Washington, he became familiar with the evils of 
slavery and was ever after an earnest abolitionist. But 
his energies were not all directed to crusades against 



HISTORICAL SERMON 65 

evil. He was the moving spirit in securing railroad 
facilities for the community, and was the man always 
sought as the leader in any public enterprise. 

Almost equally influential for good in every direc- 
tion was Elijah F. Woodward, whose descendants 
still dwell within the old homestead, the eighth gener- 
ation to live under the shelter of its roof. Chorister, 
superintendent of the Sunday-school, deacon from his 
twenty-eighth year until his death, town clerk and 
treasurer, teacher and surveyor, a man universally 
trusted and beloved, at his death the whole community 
turned out to do him honor. With them are asso- 
ciated the names of Luther Paul and Asa Cook, of 
whom it is enough to say that they were worthy to 
stand in such company. And these men are but 
illustrations of that great company of able and de- 
voted men who have served this church, and who 
continue to this day. 

Sixth: Another Marked Characteristic of This Church 
Has Been Its Care for Children and Youth. 

I have called attention to the large proportion of 
young men among the charter members. During the 
ministry of Rev. John Cotton, he was the leader of 
the young men of the town, who formed a society for 
debate, mutual improvement, and religious study. In 
the latter part of his ministry, during a time of special 
interest, he records that more than three hundred 
young people had called upon him to talk about their 
personal salvation. Young people from neighboring 
towns came hither for instruction and inspiration. 
Forty years later, when Dr. Homer was invited at the 
same time to the Old South Church, Boston, and to 
this church, he chose to come here for two reasons: 
first, because this church was ready to abandon the 



66 HISTORICAL SERMON 

"half-way covenant" and the other was not; and sec- 
ond, because, as he says, "I have noticed the diHgent 
and solemn attention of the people, and especially the 
youth of this place, to the public services of religion, 
in which I have seldom, if ever, found them equaled 
elsewhere. This is a circumstance of my call which 
I cannot resist, and would prefer to every other pos- 
sible consideration." 

A class for Bible study was formed here twenty 
years before Robert Raikes started the first Sunday- 
school, and all the early pastors were faithful in cate- 
chising and instructing the children of the parish. 
Jonas Meriam records that he had a list of over eight 
hundred baptized children for whose welfare he was 
solicitous. To-day, the heart of our church life is to 
be found in the Bible-school, and the most attractive 
feature of our public worship is the presence of an 
unusual number of children and young people. 

Seventh: The Last Characteristic which I Shall Mention 
Is the Influence of Consecrated Womanhood. 

The thoughts of some of the older people will 
immediately turn to that beautiful and gracious 
woman who presided with so much dignity in the 
home of Dr. Furber, and whose portrait fittingly 
adorns the wall of our chapel. Eminent in all good 
works, extending her influence through her benefac- 
tions to the destitute in the southern and western 
states and in foreign lands, the friend of all who were 
in trouble, the comforter of those in sorrow, the coun- 
sellor of the perplexed, her memory is cherished in 
many distant homes and grateful hearts. 

But Mrs. Furber was only one in that succession 
of noble women, who not only in the parsonage, but 
in so many homes of this parish, have given witness 



HISTORICAL SERMON 67 

to the beauty of holiness. Dr. Furber's memorial 
discourse gives in some detail the history of Mrs. 
Anna Pope, a notable "mother in Israel," who 
lived to the age of one hundred and four years, and 
exerted a wide influence. Such women as the three 
daughters of Dea. Isaac Williams, the daughters of 
Rev. Nehemiah Hobart, and Dr. John Cotton; of 
Deacon Jackson and Deacon Woodward, have been 
the ornaments of our history and a chief source of 
the influence of this church. Nor has the goodly 
succession failed. The strength of this church, as of 
all our churches, is largely in its consecrated woman- 
hood. The women of the church still pray and labor 
for its usefulness, and the evidence of their devotion 
is seen in the furnishings of this house wherein we 
worship. 

As I have studied the history of these two hundred 
and fifty years, I have been more and more impressed 
by the cumulative influence of a Christian church. 
Reflect for a moment on what this church has meant: 

First, to this community: It has stood here as a 
witness to the unseen, lifting its head above the tur- 
bid stream of daily life, and binding all its activities 
into union with the eternal verities. At every crisis 
of human life, the church lays its hand in benediction 
on the sons of men. Children are brought before its 
altars and dedicated in parental consecration to the 
service of God and their fellow men in the sacred rite 
of baptism. Here the romance of youth is crowned 
by the marriage ceremony and the blessing of God is 
invoked upon the new home set up in His name. In 
the hour of sorrow and the heart's desolation, the 
church brings the consolations of God which are 
neither few nor small. And when the brief day of 
life is over, it is hither that the precious dust is borne, 



68 HISTORICAL SERMON 

and the voice of the church reminds us of the city that 
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 
There are many more present here to-day than are 
visible to our mortal eyes. The great company of 
godly men and women who have worshipped here in 
bygone days are bringing to us their testimony, if we 
could but hear it, that they have sought and found 
help in the sanctuary of God. Truly we are encom- 
passed by a great cloud of witnesses. 

Second, to the nation: The best gift that a nation 
can receive is the gift of men and women for her serv- 
ice. One of the ministers who grew up in this church 
was the Rev. Jonas Clark of Lexington, a leading spirit 
among those ministers who did so much to prepare 
the public mind for the revolutionary struggle. One 
of his daughters married the president of Columbia 
College, and another was the wife of the professor of 
divinity at Harvard. More than half the male mem- 
bership of the church fought in the Revolutionary 
War, and, when the land was rent by civil strife, their 
sons were not found wanting. The courage and pa- 
triotism of Col. Michael Jackson and his gallant com- 
pany were matched by the devotion of Serg. Maj. 
Charles Ward, Capt. Joseph Cousens, and their com- 
rades in 1 86 1. 

But the gifts to the state in times of peace have been 
even greater than such costly sacrifices upon the altar 
of patriotism in the time of war. Among the descend- 
ants of the early families are three judges, two mem- 
bers of Congress, a large number of authors, four 
college professors, three professors in theological 
seminaries, five college presidents, twenty-five minis- 
ters of the gospel, and twenty-four ministers' wives. 

What a contribution to the history of the nation 
was made by that wonderful family of our third 



HISTORICAL SERMON 69 

deacon, Isaac Williams. His son, Rev. William 
Williams, married the daughter of the minister, John 
Cotton, and went to Hatfield, where he preached for 
fifty-five years. One of his sons was Rev. Solomon 
Williams, D.D., who was minister in Lebanon, Con- 
necticut, for more than fifty years, and whose son, 
William, was one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. Another son of the Hatfield minister 
was Rev. Elisha Williams, rector of Yale College. 
A son of the Lebanon minister went to East Hartford 
and preached there more than fifty years. Here are 
three generations of ministers, each of whom remained 
in one parish for more than half a century. The 
grandson of our Deacon W'illiams, Colonel Ephraim 
Williams, provided in his will for the establishment of 
Williams College. In the direct line of descent from 
the good deacon are also such famous people as Rev. 
Joseph Buckminster, D.D., and his son, Joseph, 
noted New England ministers; Judge Theodore Sedge- 
wick and his daughter, Catherine Maria Sedgewick, 
the authoress; President Mark Hopkins of Williams, 
and his brother, Albert; Mrs. E. W. Blatchford of 
Chicago; Mrs. E. S. Mead, former president of Mount 
Holyoke, and many others. W^ho can estimate the 
power of the influences for the higher life of the nation 
that had their origin in that one godly household? 

Professor Park (who was himself descended from 
Nathan Park, the first person received into the church 
by Dr. Homer), in his famous sermon on "The In- 
debtedness of the State to The Clergy," quotes Sir. 
Thomas Fowell Buxton as saying, at the close of his 
great career, "Whatever I have done in my life for 
Africa, the seeds of it w^ere sown in my heart in Wheeler 
Street Chapel." None of us, probably, has ever 
heard of Wheeler Street Chapel. The humble min- 



70 HISTORICAL SERMON 

ister who preached there is unknown to fame. But 
the work of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton is known 
throughout the world. Many another man has 
wrought mightily for the welfare of the nation and of 
mankind, whose aspirations were awakened here in 
this village church, and whose life was nourished and 
strengthened by waters from this ancient fountain. 

We have usually from twenty-five to forty boys and 
girls away at college. Almost all of them have re- 
ceived the seal of Christ and His church before they 
leave their homes. A constant stream of young men 
and women, trained by the home, the school, and the 
church for the highest service, thus flows steadily out 
to join the broad river of the world's life. We have 
our representatives to-day in all parts of our own land, 
in Canada, in South America, and across the seas. 
Our hope and constant prayer is that everywhere they 
may remain true to the ideals they have here 
adopted, and may bear a good witness for Jesus 
Christ. To equip and supply such leadership in 
state and church is a service to the nation which can- 
not be estimated. 

Third, to the world : Our lines have gone out to all 
the earth and our sons and daughters to the ends of the 
world. To-day they are bearing gifts for the healing 
of the nations which they themselves have plucked 
from the tree of life. As so many of our choicest 
youth have gone into the sacred ministry at home and 
abroad in bygone days, may we still continue to 
furnish leaders in that high and holy calling. 

But besides the gift of men and women, trained for 
service, the church serves the world chiefly by her 
insistence upon the highest ideals of personal, social, 
and national life. We are beholding in these days a 
most impressive and depressing exhibition of the in- 



HISTORICAL SERMON 7I 

fluence of ideals upon national life. Half the world 
is enduring the horrors of war because false concep- 
tions of national greatness have been persistently 
taught. In the redemption of humanity, individual 
righteousness was the first goal to be won. That has 
so far been attained that, at least, the New Testament 
ethical ideal is now universally accepted as the stand- 
ard of conduct. Next in order comes social righteous- 
ness, and we have made great strides in that direction, 
until now the ideal of society is far more clearly recog- 
nized and far more widely accepted than ever before. 
If you ask what part the church has had in bringing 
these things to pass, just imagine for a moment that 
these New England hills had been dotted for the last 
tw^o centuries and a half with Mohammedan mosques 
or Buddhist temples instead of the white churches of 
our fathers, and try to picture the society that would 
have grown up about them. Can anyone bring him- 
self to believe that we should have to-day the ideals of 
personal conduct, of civic righteousness and of na- 
tional freedom and justice which are now the very 
breath of our nostrils? But, while so much has been 
won, the nations have only just begun to realize that 
in international relations the same law of righteous- 
ness must be applied as in personal relations. It is 
the great opportunity and the momentous obligation 
of the Christian church now to insist, with trumpet 
voice, upon the practice in international behavior of 
those ideals which shall ultimately bring a lasting and 
righteous peace to all the earth. 

How great is the power of transmitted life! Jesus 
left no book and organized no institution. But He 
gathered a company of disciples and filled them with 
the life of God. They went forth and kindled the 
divine fire in the hearts of thousands. Down through 



72 HISTORICAL SERMON 

the generations that life has been transmitted, in that 
holy succession which goes back to the Lord of Life 
Himself. The beginnings of this church are not to be 
sought in that devoted company who here established 
their free government in church and state two cen- 
turies and a half ago, nor even in that creative and 
germinant era which preceded their coming to these 
shores, but in the life-giving soul of Christ, our Lord. 
We stand here, then, in a holy succession. As we 
have received the gift, it is ours to hand it on with 
undiminished power, and in the new and marvelous 
openings of Providence in this era, to be as ready as 
our fathers were to ser\^e our day and generation in 
the fear of God. When England faltered for a mo- 
ment, in the early days of the last century, the poet 
Wordsworth recalled his countrymen to worthy en- 
deavor in such words as these: 

"In our halls is hung 

Amoury of the invincible knights of old: 
We must be free or die, who speak the tongue 

That Shakespeare spoke; the faith and morals hold 
Which Milton held. In everything we are sprung 

Of earth's first blood, have titles manifold." 

So this record summons us to worthy living. Let 
others forget, if they will, their high calling, and give 
themselves to selfish ease or sinful indulgence, but 
not we! Noblesse oblige! Whenever any Ahab seeks 
to tempt us to unworthy surrender, may our hearts 
cry out in passionate devotion, "The Lord forbid it 
me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers 
unto thee! " 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

SUNDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 1, 1914 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 



THE detailed history of the school had been so thor- 
oughly given at the anniversary twenty-five years 
ago, and so carefully recorded in the commemorative volume, 
that it was decided not to make the Bible-School Service, 
held at 3.30 o'clock Sunday afternoon, one of historical remc 
iniscence. The Value and Importance of the Lord's Day 
was, therefore, chosen as the central theme, and different 
aspects of its observance were discussed in brief addresses. 
Tickets of admission were sent to the various Sunday-schools 
of the city, and the church was well filled with children 
and young people. The choir sang the responsive anthem, 
"Come, ye children, unto me," by Maunder, Mrs. S. W. 
Wilder taking the solo part, so effectively that they were 
urged to repeat it at a subsequent Sunday service. Mrs. 
G. W. Ulmer, Jr., with her cornet, led the singing of the 
hymns, and the fresh young voices joined in the stirring 
and familiar tunes with youthful enthusiasm. Mr. Charles 
E. Kelsey, the superintendent, presided, and introduced the 
speakers. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME 

By Mr. Charles E. Kelsey, Superintendent of the 
Bible School of the First Church of Newton 

THERE are thirty-nine churches in Newton to-day, and 
we have invited the boys and girls of all of these 
churches to come here this afternoon and take a part in 
this celebration of our two hundred and fiftieth birthday, 
and we welcome you most cordially. 

I would like to ask each one here to put themselves in 
the frame of mind that a man has when he comes home 



76 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

after being away from home for a great many years, and ta 
think of this church as your old home, the home that 
you may have left a great many years ago, and that you 
have come back to rejoice in the old age and vigor of your 
old home life. 

Anyone of us who walks up and down the streets of New- 
ton must be impressed with the character of the community; 
that this is a peaceful town; that this is an orderly town, 
and that the life of the families and the boys and girls 
and all the life of the town is sweet and clean. And may 
we not ask, just for a moment, why is this community so 
attractive? Why do people that live in Boston and else- 
where want to come to Newton to live? I have been over 
this country somewhat, and I have never yet found a com- 
munity so attractive, so desirable from every standpoint 
in which to live as the city of Newton, and why is it? Is 
it not because of the influence of the churches and the 
schools upon the life of this community? I don't think 
any man here, or any man in this city, would have any 
one of the churches removed, or any one of the schools 
removed, or that any one regrets that this church was 
organized two hundred and fifty years ago; and if the life 
of this community is sweetened and enriched because of 
the churches and schools, it is the result of the beginnings of 
that influence two hundred and fifty years ago. 

This church has striven to be useful to every part of 
Newton. We have tried, all these two hundred and fifty 
years, to help other churches to start, and to be useful, 
and when you look back at this old church of two hundred 
and fifty years, still young and vigorous, give the old church 
and the old church ideas a little credit for what Newton is 
to-day. 

You know this is a very old church, boys. You think 
of the Declaration of Independence being a long way 
back, the very beginning of things, but this church was 
one hundred and twelve years old when the Declaration 
of Independence was signed. This church lived one 
hundred and twelve vears before that time and has been 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 77 

growing ever since. We go back to the very beginning of 
things in this old church, but we have the same Bible, 
the same purposes, the same opportunities for service, as 
we had two hundred and fifty years ago. 

In this Bible school of ours, we try to do three things: 
First to establish the habit of going to church, and, do you 
know, the worst opponents we have are the parents. The 
second is to observe the Sabbath day right, and the third 
is to teach the ideals of Christ. Our topic this afternoon 
is the second one, "How Should We Observe the Sabbath 
Day?" Our first speaker is the pastor of this old church, 
Mr. Noves: 



ADDRESS: SUNDAY IN THE PAST 
By Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes, Newton Centre 

IF WE go back far enough in the past, to the very begin- 
ning of Sunday observance, we find the early Chris- 
tians keeping the day in memory of the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ from the dead. The Jewish Sabbath was a 
day of rest. Its basis was that "God rested on the seventh 
day and hallowed it." The Christian Sunday was a day 
of life. Its basis was the victory of Christ over death. It 
was a day to be given not alone to rest from ordinary labor, 
but to the building up of the new life, and to Christian 
service. It became, then, one of the marks of a disciple 
that he kept the day. In the days of persecution, the 
Roman officer demanded of the accused whether or not he 
kept the day. And if he answered boldly, " I am a Christian , 
I cannot fail to keep it," that confession sent him to a 
martyr's death. 

No one was worthy, in those early days, of the great 
name of "Christian," if he failed to "remember the Lord's 
Day. " It was a test of a Christian then; it is one test of a 
Christian now. And it was not easy to keep Sunday then. 
Many of these early disciples were slaves. All of them were 
poor. The Roman writer, Pliny, tells us how they kept 



78 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

Sunday. Although they had to work, as on any other day, 
they managed to meet before daylight, to sing a hymn or 
two together in praise of Christ, their Lord, and to share in 
the Lord's Supper. Then they renewed their vows to live 
in obedience to His will, and went out to their tasks. 

A new day dawned in 321, when the Emperor Constantine 
made Sunday a day of rest and worship throughout the 
Roman Empire. But as the church grew rich and strong, 
festivals and feast days were multiplied until Sunday was 
almost lost amid so many holy-days. It was like printing 
a page with all the letters capitals. It was impossible to 
keep so many days sacred, and the result was that all were 
alike neglected. 

The Reformation, especially in England, brought a new 
observance of the Lord's Day. The Puritans, especially, 
carried their reform so far that the people were greatly dis- 
satisfied with the stopping of their games and pleasures on 
Sundays. James I, in 1618, issued "The Book of Sports" in 
which he named the amusements and pastimes which were 
to be allowed after church-time. One of the reasons why the 
Pilgrims emigrated to this country was because neither in 
England nor in Holland could they keep the Lord's Day in 
accordance with their conscience. So Bryant sings in one 
of his poems of 

"The pilgrim bands who crossed the sea to keep 
Their Sabbath in the eye of God alone 
In His wide temple of the wilderness." 

The people who founded this church kept the Lord's Day 
with great strictness. All work stopped at three o'clock 
on Saturday in order that they might be ready for the fol- 
lowing day. All the farm -work and the housework was 
arranged so that as little as possible would need to be done 
on Sunday. There were three church services and they 
were long, and would seem tedious nowadays. The meet- 
ing-house was bare and cold. Even in winter there was no 
fire. The people stood up during the long prayer. The 
seats were on hinges, and were lifted up when the people 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 79 

Stood. When they sat down again, the seats came down 
with a bang. The boys sat by themselves, and there was a 
tithing-man to keep them in order. He did not always 
succeed. They ate their lunches at noon in a warm noon- 
house, and then came back into the cold church for the 
afternoon service. There was no Bible school in the early 
days, but the children were carefully taught in the homes 
and were catechized by the minister when he called. 

I am afraid that the boys and girls of to-day would find 
such a Sunday as our great grandfathers had a very trying 
ordeal. We have changed the observance of Sunday very 
much since the early days. But we must remember that 
it was the conscience and fidelity, the reverence and faith 
of our ancestors that have preserved for us our civil and 
religious liberty. If we study the map of the world, we 
shall find that the Sabbath-keeping lands and those alone 
are the lands where civil and religious liberty have flourished. 

We must not think that the Puritans' Sabbath was 
altogether stern and forbidding. The mother of the house- 
hold gathered her children about her before the open fire 
in the late Sunday afternoons, and told them the great 
stories of the Bible; and together they learned hymns and 
psalms. Many of the strongest men of our nation have 
looked back in after years to such fireside scenes as most 
important in shaping their characters and destiny. 

We cannot bring back the Sunday of the past. But we 
can take care that we shall not lose that which was most 
precious in it; its quiet, its peace, its freedom from labor, 
its spirit of worship, and its emphasis upon the family life. 
We can remember that from the beginning it has been a 
day for the building up of the new life in Christ; a day of 
joy, of thinking the best thoughts, reading the best books, 
singing the best songs, and doing deeds of kindness and 
charity, as well as a day of worship and of prayer. And to- 
day, as in the early ages, we can answer, " I am a Christian, 
I cannot fail to keep the Lord's Day. " 



80 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

ADDRESS: SUNDAY IN THE PRESENT 

By Mr. Allan C. Emery, President of the Y. M. 
C. A. OF Newton 

I WANT to tell you a story about two Newton boys. 
On a beautiful Sunday morning, like this, a certain 
boy rushes down stairs and grabs the comic supplement of 
the Sunday paper and busies himself until breakfast time. 
After breakfast, his dad takes him and the other members 
of the family on an automobile ride, sometimes for all day 
and sometimes home for dinner. If at home in the after- 
noon, he takes a spin on his bicycle and plays games with 
some of the boys. Bedtime finds him tired but happy. 

The other boy has been taught to begin the day by telling 
Jesus that he loves Him and to ask Him to make him a good 
boy and later on a good man. He puts on the finishing 
touches to his Sunday-school lesson and after breakfast 
goes with his father and mother to church. He knows 
little that is said for he may be looking over his Sunday- 
school lesson or at some other book. He knows not why 
he's there, he goes because his parents go. At Sunday- 
school, he has a good time for he meets the other boys and 
has learned his lesson. After dinner, his dad may take him 
for a walk in the woods or with a good book he may 
while away a happy hour or two. A few good hymns 
about the piano or stories before the open fire make glo- 
rious the twilight hour. I forgot the Sunday afternoon 
treat which dad or mother does not forget to provide. 
With bedtime come more stories and a happy and contented 
boy enters the land of dreams. 

A few years later, I can see the first boy hustling out on 
a Sunday morning with his golf clubs, or his tennis racquet, 
or in his automobile, bent on a good time, a day at the club. 
Should it rain, the Sunday paper gets more attention, or 
a game of chess or cards to while away the time. Anything 
for a good time, on the principle "the better the day the 
better the deed." 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 8 1 

The second boy is on his way to church as a matter of 
habit. He seems to have absorbed into his mind that 
"bodily exercise profiteth Httle but Godliness is profitable 
unto all things." He is a ver^' busy young man during 
the week for he is a fine athlete. His tennis, ball and other 
sports, as well as his studies, take much of his time. Sunday 
to him must be a day of rest, and then he has learned 
that he not only has a body and a mind, but he has a soul, 
which must be developed. He has continued in the Sunday- 
school and now has a class for which he works and studies. 
He is a member of the Young People's Society and the 
Y. M. C. A., and later becomes an officer of the church. 
He has learned to let his light shine and to be helpful to 
others, because Sunday, to him, is a day of rest and prepa- 
ration for a Godly life. 

WTiich of the two boys will make the best citizen? Sup- 
pose ever\' one was like the first boy and never went to 
church, where would the church be to-day and what would 
be the future of our countr\^? 

There has been quite a departure from the old blue 
laws; we have gone far to the other extreme. In many of 
our American cities, crowds attend Sunday baseball games, 
theatres and other places of amusement. In our own city, 
we have Sunday golf, tennis and moving pictures, and other 
pastimes common on week days. We see, however, a trend 
back to a more strict observance of the Lord's Day. Labor 
organizations are working for one rest day in seven and on 
the continent, where shops are open seven days, an effort 
is being made to close one day in the week. 

How did Jesus keep the Sabbath? He visited the sick 
and healed them, opened blind eyes and saved sinners. 
He attended the House of God and spent time in prayer and 
in the study of God's word. Can we do any better than 
to follow in His footsteps? I doubt if we shall make any 
great headway in keeping this holy day unless we first 
learn to love Him, who died on the cross that we might 
live, and who rose from the dead on the Sabbath day and 
ever liveth to make intercession for us. 

6 



82 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

I well remember seeing a little baby boy sitting on the 
floor, playing with his blocks. He was very busy, making 
all kinds of things, which he called men and houses, when 
his fond mother, who was watching, said, "Nobody loves 
mother." With that, the little fellow looked up into his 
mother's face with an expression of deepest love, but said 
nothing. Thereupon, the mother said again, "Nobody 
loves mother." The baby looked into his mother's face, 
with his hands still on the blocks, for he was very busy, 
and said, "Baby loves mother." Still that was not suffi- 
cient for the hungry heart of the mother, who said once 
more, "Nobody loves mother." With that, the little 
fellow dropped his blocks and ran to his mother and climbed 
up into her arms. Putting his arms around her neck and 
nestling his little face close to hers, he said, with his whole 
heart, "Baby loves mother." 

Do you love Jesus like that? If so, I am sure you will 
show your love for Him by keeping His commandments, 
not the least of which is "Remember the Sabbath day to 
keep it holy." 



ADDRESS: SUNDAY AROUND THE WORLD 

By Rev. James L. Barton, D.D., L.L.D., Foreign 
Secretary of the American Board of Commis- 
sioners FOR Foreign Missions 

THERE are several different Sabbath days observed 
among the different religions of the world. The 
Mohammedans keep Friday as their holy day, the day 
in which they assemble in their mosques where special serv- 
ices are held and where, usually, sermons are given. While 
the day is not wholly free from labor it is regarded as the 
sacred day of Mohammedanism and is kept with more or 
less strictness by the 200,000,000 Mohammedans of the 
world. 

The Jews keep Saturday, and wherever Jews are found — 
and they are found in nearly all parts of the world, even 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 83 

in America — Saturday is their day of worship, their holy 
day in which they refrain from labor and give themselves 
more or less to their religious life. 

The Christians keep Sunday, and wherever the mission- 
aries have gone they have taught the sacredness of the day 
and the importance of its being kept as the Lord's day and 
devoted to religious thought and religious practices and 
worship. 

The different pagan peoples, while they do not have a 
regular day, have many feast days and holy days, aggre- 
gating together far more than the total of the Christian 
Sundays. Among some peoples nearly one-half the year 
is devoted to holy days, which become largely holidays, 
days of feasting and celebration, of religious processions, 
and of exercises in the heathen temples. 

It is not an easy thing for a Christian in heathen lands 
to keep the Sabbath day, when all about him work is go- 
ing on as usual, and he, by refraining from work and at- 
tending public worship, makes himself out to be a peculiar 
person, a follower of a peculiar religion, and even exposes 
himself to ridicule and persecution. But, more than this, 
many Christians in mission lands cannot command their 
own time. They are laborers; some of them are almost 
slaves — at least serfs — and so are under the command and 
control of the one over them. It is often impossible for 
an earnest Christian to refuse to work without bringing 
disaster upon himself and his family. 

It is instructive, however, in spite of all these conditions, 
to see how faithfully the Christians in Japan and in China, 
in India and in Turkey, keep and observe the Sabbath 
day. In many places they put Christians in America to 
shame by the way in which they refrain from secular duties 
and labors and devote the day to purely Christian work. 
I myself was criticised in the heart of Kurdistan by one of 
the earnest Christian evangelistis for cleaning my finger 
nails on Sunday morning. The evangelist very quietly 
asked me if I would be willing not to let others see 
me do that, since it would give the impression that I was 



84 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

not a strict observer of the Sabbath. Many Christians 
endure great persecution in order to keep the day sacred 
and to devote it wholly to Christian service and work. 

It is interesting to see how the day has been adopted by 
some of the Eastern nations as a government holiday. 
Most of the government offices in Japan and China are 
closed on Sunday, although this is not done for religious 
purposes; it is done because the people know that Sunday 
is a legal holiday among the Christian countries of the 
West and they wish to put themselves into sympathetic 
relations with the great western Christian nations. Most 
of the government schools are closed on Sunday, and if one 
to-day is in the capital of the Japanese empire, Tokyo, or 
in Peking, China, or in other great cities of those two 
countries, he will find a marked difference between Sunday 
and the ordinary week-day. 

Certainly the Christian Sabbath in some form is en- 
circling the world, with its sacred influence and with its 
constant reminder of Jesus Christ Who rose from the dead 
and sits upon the Throne with the Father as reigning 
Lord and Master of men. The importance of the day can- 
not be over estimated. Any people in non-Christian lands 
who cease to observe it quickly lose their Christian faith 
and slip back into their original paganism. Much emphasis 
is put upon the importance of the day, and as the day ex- 
tends throughout the pagan world in a corresponding 
degree extend the principles and doctrines and life taught 
and practised and lived by Jesus Christ among men. It is, 
indeed, the Lord's day, from which the emphasis on its 
importance cannot be removed, "The Day" that is winning 
its way among the nations of the world. 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 85 

ADDRESS: SUNDAY IN THE FUTURE 

By Rev. Jason Noble Pierce of the Second Church, 
Dorchester, Mass. 

IT IS a pleasure to be present on this happy occasion and 
to bring you greetings from the Second Church of 
Dorchester. We have felt that as a church we are venerable 
and aged. But I confess that, when I compare our one 
hundred and six years of existence to your two hundred and 
fifty years, I feel that we are but a child. I presume that 
what makes us of Dorchester conscious of our antiquity 
is the fact that we are worshiping still in our original build- 
ing erected in the year 1805. I had not been very long in 
Dorchester before I discovered that our people have a great 
regard for your church and a great love for your eloquent 
minister, Mr. Noyes. I, therefore, bring in behalf of a 
people whose esteem and affection you hold, the most 
cordial greetings to yourselves as a church and to Mr. 
Noyes, your pastor, whom I count one of my most esteemed 
friends. 

The subject assigned to me this afternoon is "The Sunday 
of the Future." It does not need to be said that it is much 
easier to tell what the Sunday of the past has been, and 
what the Sunday of to-day is, than it is to foretell what the 
Sunday of the future will be. I can state with confidence, 
however, that it will be exactly what we make it. While 
the day is divinely instituted, the observance of it rests 
with us. We are free agents. We can make Sunday what- 
ever we choose. 

When I use the pronoun "We," you will recognize that 
I am describing a cosmopolitan body at large rather than 
the group represented here this afternoon. It includes, for 
instance, people of no religious faith and no religious pre- 
tension, who have no concern as to Sunday except to make 
it a holiday. It also includes the great body of people who 
have commercialized the Sabbath for the financial returns 
it makes to them in a business way, — and the number of 



86 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

such people is legion. It includes those who choose, for 
reasons of their own, to observe the seventh instead of the 
first day of the week as the Sabbath. The increasing num- 
ber of Jews in our country are to be reckoned with in this 
connection. Then also there are our Catholic friends, who, 
while they keep the same day that we observe, keep it in 
a totally different fashion, and seem to us Protestants to 
hold the belief that if they but attend church some time 
on the Lord's Day, then they are at liberty to turn the 
rest of the day into a holiday. In addition to these there 
is the great body of believers who hold our own conception 
that Sunday is a sacred day, ordained of God as a day of 
rest, of worship, and of spiritual uplift. Many people, 
therefore, are helping to determine what the observance 
of Sunday shall be. 

Having said that Sunday will be what we make it, let 
me further say that I have confidence that we shall make 
it what it ought to be. I mean that in the end, ultimately, 
finally, we shall choose to make it exactly what we ought 
to make it. It is for our best interests to make it such a day. 

I do not know how you feel about the matter, but I do 
not believe that God arbitrarily set apart one day in seven 
and said, "This is my day, you must give it up to me; 
you must worship me on this day ; you must rest from your 
toil on this day; you must cultivate spiritual fellowship 
with one another and with me." But rather I believe that 
in His infinite wisdom and in His matchless love, knowing 
what was for our best and desiring us to have it, God set 
apart this day for the Sabbath. And I believe that if we 
had no revelation as to the Sabbath, if we had no previous 
custom, if we had not been brought up from childhood to 
look upon this as a peculiar day belonging to the Lord, 
nevertheless our spirit of scientific investigation and the 
accumulation of data that would cover the various issues 
involved, in time would cause us to discover that it was 
for our best physical interests to have one day in seven for 
rest. We should discover that people attain the finest 
character when one day in seven is consecrated to the study 



BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 87 

of spiritual things, and to bringing a closer relationship 
between man and God. We should discover that from 
every point of view we approximate the realization of the 
ideal most closely when we set apart one day in seven as 
a holy day. 

Ultimately, therefore, from ulterior motives, and from 
a desire to attain unto the best, we should find ourselves 
increasingly observing Sunday in the very way that I 
think God meant us to observe it. And then, too, we can- 
not leave out of account the fact that God would be with 
us in all that process, suggesting, inspiring, stimulating, so 
that in addition to our own wisdom we should have His 
wisdom and His constraining love helping us to set apart 
and to observe the Sabbath. Therefore, because I believe 
in the Sabbath, because I believe that we can trust man- 
kind, because I believe in the quickening spirit of God at 
work in our midst, I have firm confidence that the Sunday 
of the future will be a day of rest, of worship, and of fel- 
lowship in spiritual things. 

In closing will you permit me to observe that, while it is 
true that Sunday will be what we make it, it is also true 
that we shall be just what the right use of Sunday makes us. 
The right use of Sunday will make us great. The wrong 
use of Sunday will bring ruin and extermination to both 
the individual and to our mighty country. How long 
would this old Mother Earth of ours continue to be a 
desirable habitation if we were deprived of the light and 
heat and uplifting power of the sun? Our prosperity de- 
pends upon the sun. It is also true that the uplifting force 
of communion with God is essential to the attainment of 
the highest character and the noblest life. It elevates us to 
higher levels. 

When I was a student in college, the same college by the 
way as that from which your superintendent, Mr. Charles 
E. Kelsey, graduated, we went into the class room one day 
to discover a balance like a teeter-board. Our curiosity 
was aroused. The professor took one of our number and 
had him lie upon the balance, telling him to forget his 



88 BIBLE SCHOOL SERVICE 

class-mates and to endeavor to go calmly to sleep. While he 
tried to become unconscious and oblivious to our presence, 
we brought him into equilibrium so that he balanced level 
upon that board. Then the professor said to him, " I am 
going to pull one of the hairs of your head, — which hair 
is it?" and while he thought of his head and endeavored 
to determine the hair that the professor was pulling, the 
blood rushed to that part of his body and the balance tipped 
down in that direction. Again he endeavored to forget us 
and to go to sleep and once more we got him balanced in 
equilibrium. Then our professor said to him, "This time 
I am going to put a needle into one of your ankles, — ^which 
ankle is it?" As he concentrated his thought upon his 
ankles to discover which one of them would be pricked by 
the needle, the blood in his body rushed to that end of his 
body and the balance tipped in the opposite direction to 
which it had previously gone down. Nobody had touched 
it. It was an illustration of the power of thought upon the 
human body. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." 
No person can have unholy thoughts, evil desires that 
crowd his mind full of sinful imaginings without having his 
life drawn downward and the fabric of his character de- 
stroyed. Equally is it true no person can have high and 
holy thoughts, can read the best literature and supremely 
the Book of Books, God's Holy Word ; no person can aspire 
to commune with God in prayer, no person can worship 
Him, without having his whole life drawn upward by the 
very power of his thinking. And then in conjunction with 
this, as we reach upward toward God, He draws nigh 
unto us, and the great uplifting power of His Holy Spirit 
helps to elevate us to higher altitudes of life. "Blessed 
is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom 
He hath chosen for His own inheritance." The Sunday 
of the future will be what we make it, and we as individuals 
and as a nation will be exactly what our observance of 
Sunday makes us. 



YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERVICE 

SUNDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1914 



YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERVICE 



OF ANY old New England church about to observe an 
anniversary, Isaiah's words concerning Judah will be 
true: "Thy sons shall come from far." The greatest work 
done by these churches is the training of young men and 
women and sending them forth to honorable service in all 
parts of the earth. For the Young People's Service, on 
Sunday evening, the church was fortunate in being able to 
summon two graduates of the Bible-School and Young 
People's Society to speak to their successors: Mrs. Mary 
Kingsbury Simkhovitch of the Greenwich House social 
settlement, New York City, and Dr. Arthur Gordon 
Webster, professor of Mathematics at Clark University, 
Worcester, Mass. Dr. Francis E. Clark, beloved founder 
and head of the Christian Endeavor Societies, whose home 
is in the city of Newton, gave the closing address. There 
was a large attendance of young people, and many former 
associates of the first two speakers came to renew the old 
friendships. 

PRAYER AT THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERVICE 
Rev. William Ewing, D.D. 

Loving and gracious Father, we thank Thee for Thy care 
for all the children of Thy love. Especially we thank Thee 
today that, through many generations, Thou hast cared for 
the youth of this community. We thank Thee for the 
faithful men and women who, in the spirit of our Lord, have 
cared for the boys and girls, and have striven to guide them 
in the way of righteous living and in holy purposes. 

We thank Thee for those who have gone out from the 
homes of this church carrying with them into the life of the 



92 YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 

world the spirit of Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for those 
who have gone into the distant parts of our own land and 
across the seas carrying the good news of the Kingdom 
to those who knew it not. 

We thank Thee for the heritage of light and knowledge 
that has come to those who have lived here in the days of 
their childhood, and have given themselves to the love and 
service of their Master and gone on, year after year, in- 
creasing in strength and wisdom ; for those faithful men and 
women who have grown up here in love and service doing 
their work faithfully we praise Thee, and pray that they 
may continue in helpful service. 

And now we pray for those who are coming here today; 
for the boys and girls, and young men and women, in our 
homes and church and schools; that Thy benediction may 
rest upon them. May they form high purposes of life and 
noble habits of daily living, and cherish in their hearts those 
supreme affections which shall lead them so that they may 
grow to the largest usefulness in Thy service. May they 
be ready to meet all that there is for them to do in their 
day and generation. 

Now, as we thank Thee for Thy blessings in the years 
past, we pray that Thou wilt be ever present with us and 
ours, and that Thou mayest live in our hearts and homes, 
and in all parts of our land. And may Thy name be glo- 
rified evermore. Amen. 

ADDRESS: THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL WORK 

By Mrs. Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Greenwich 
House, New York City 

IT WAS right over there, half way down on the left hand 
side facing the pulpit, that I spent my early Sunday 
mornings. I take it for granted that you, as young people, 
will not object to my reminiscing a bit. I used to love to 
hear my grandmother tell how she used to sing in the 
Old Park Street Church choir, and how the family cows 
used to pasture on the Boston Common. 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 93 

If human nature hasn't changed, I am going to take it 
for granted that you, too, will take an interest in what 
seems to me my own remote past — I don't dare think 
how far back it might look to you. 

I suppose I might as well begin with my great-grand- 
father. I didn't have the pleasure of knowing the old 
gentleman. He passed away after about a fifty years' 
illness. He contracted tuberculosis and was thereupon shut 
up in what used to be known as "the clock room" on 
the old farm, and by conscientiously keeping shut up, 
notwithstanding his first-class constitution, and an aggres- 
sive resistance that lasted over half a century, he finally 
succumbed. 

The daguerreotype of great-grandfather pictures him as 
a cheerful, powerful, practical man. I should not have 
picked him out for a philosopher. But those were the days 
when to be a Congregationalist was to be a philosopher. 
His Calvinistic reflections are reported to his descendants 
as follows: "If I am to be saved, I am to be saved. If I 
am to be damned, I am to be damned." He, therefore, 
never felt it at all necessary to "join the church," regarding 
it as unsuitable to break in in any way upon predestination. 

Nevertheless, he took what might be called a strong 
collateral interest in religion. He was very glad when his 
children could see their way clear to joining the church, 
and he presented a Bible for pulpit use, which I see before 
me as I speak. 

The only thing that I have against great-grandfather is 
that he once refused to take what afterwards turned out 
to be East Boston, in payment of a debt. But all that was 
before my time. 

When I was a little girl we used to go to church with 
grandpa and grandma and my mother, my father, singing 
in the choir, giving me a perfectly good excuse to turn 
around from time to time, to see how he was getting on. 
It is said that at my first attendance upon divine service, 
when prayer was announced, I knelt in the pew with great 



94 YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 

devoutness, thereby causing great embarrassment to the 
family. 

I recall that in the family prayers of my mother's family, 
it was customary to pray standing. But my Grandfather 
Kingsbury always sat perfectly rigid, the younger and 
more advanced members of the family, placing their heads 
on the back of the pew in front. Whether this break in 
manners on my part forecast my later ecclesiastical align- 
ment, I cannot say. 

My grandmother was always devoted to very young 
persons. The younger they were, the more congenial 
she found them. She seemed to look into our innermost 
hearts. During the long prayer and the long sermon, it 
was her valued custom, while looking innocently straight 
ahead, with blue and childlike eyes, surreptitiously to slip 
me a peppermint, which greatly encouraged me to pro- 
priety. 

As a young girl growing up, two recollections seem to 
stand out strongest in connection with my church-going. 
These were of absolutely no importance, but are indicative 
of the skittishness of youth. There was a lady who sat 
between us and the pulpit. In order to look at the minister, 
it was necessary to look through the feathers on her hat. 
Those were of a magenta color, and the furnishings of the 
pulpit were bright red. This caused me so much unhappi- 
ness — to have to see the red through the magenta — that 
I used to keep my eyes closed, rather than to suffer that 
excruciating color combination. 

The other item was the constant fear that I experienced, 
lest the minister or some member of the standing committee 
would try to find out whether I was a Christian or not. 
And one exciting and never-to-be-forgotten evening, true 
enough when I had gone to prayer meeting with my Uncle 
Charles, dear old Dr. Furber did come over, and ask me 
the fatal question. 

I was thrown into such mortal confusion, that I cannot 
remember whether my muttered answer was intelligible 
or not. 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 95 

One thing I like very much nowadays about young peo- 
ple is a certain readiness and decisive quality, which 
seems entirely to free them from such psychological 
anxieties. A young girl nowadays would doubtless reply, 
"Why certainly; how could I be otherwise?" Or else, 
"Not at all; I haven't gotten to that yet." And then 
of course, too, such a question would never be asked 
nowadays in the same way. 

My interest in theology was always considerable. But 
when I came to join the church at the age of fourteen, I 
felt that everything was clear except the subject of the 
Trinity. I remember going to see Dr. Furber and telling 
him that I understood it all, but there were a few points 
about the Trinity I couldn't make out quite clearly. He 
said, "Sit down, my dear." At the end of five minutes, 
it was all cleared up for me. I remember saying, " I under- 
stand it perfectly now." And with my mind relieved, I 
joined without further qualms. 

Down in the front row, with his hand extended to his 
right ear, sat my old Uncle Benjamin. This deaf old gen- 
tleman, who really had experienced almost all the sorrows 
of Job, was endeared to me, especially, I fear, through the 
marvelous productivity of his beautiful grape vine, which 
formed a vast, cool arbor very seductive and alluring. Old- 
fashioned soft China pinks used to bloom in his garden, and 
these we could pick before church which was next door to 
the garden and the arbor. 

I treasure to-day a Bible which I received as a prize for 
having recited from memory a vast number of verses from 
the Bible at a Sunday-school festival. I can't help think- 
ing that that was a very commendable thing to do — to 
offer prizes for memorizing from the Psalms and other por- 
tions of the Bible. For long after the excellent International 
Sunday-school lessons shall have melted away, the Bible 
will remain. And, as every good housewife puts away a 
goodly supply of preserves and pickles for winter use, so 
the thrifty person will store away in memory the deep 
wisdom and lasting consolation contained in the beautiful 



96 YOUNG people's service 

words of the Bible. I wish I knew the whole Psalter. 
I am too old to learn it now, but you are not. 

I think I'll offer a prize myself to the young person in 
this church who can recite the most of the Psalter at the 
end of the coming year. 

Even as a child, I felt the superiority of church over 
Sunday-school. Segregation, by age groups, has never 
appealed to me. I like companies that are arranged on the 
family principle, of old and young. Is it not as important 
for youth and old age to know and respect each other, as 
it is for different races, or different economic classes? And 
this leads me directly to the discussion of the theme assigned 
me, "The Church and Social Work." 

What is the church? I Hke the expression, "the body of 
all faithful people." That great group which recognizes 
the principles of life as taught and exemplified by Jesus, 
as being universally applicable and, what is more, possible 
of fulfillment. 

What is social work? The conscious effort to make 
human life happier, juster and more intelligent, with more 
"team play" in it. In other words, the greater socializa- 
tion of life, and the greater interaction between all its parts. 

"Social work" is still a very hazy term, and notwith- 
standing what all the schools of philanthropy, etc., say, 
it cannot be called a professional task in the same sense 
as law and medicine. But still a national program is 
gradually emerging which, in a rough way, expresses the 
aims and common tasks of social workers. A program 
which would at first remove the incubus of the obviously 
unfit, which now weighs down the great bulk of the popu- 
lation; i. e., the segregation of the feeble-minded and of 
other abnormal groups. A positive program in public 
hygiene and education, which fits the individual in relation 
to life from the earliest infancy to manhood and woman- 
hood; the development of public recreation; social insur- 
ance against every type of economic misfortune; a clearer 
understanding of all the problems of industry which include 
an insistence upon the right of free speech and public 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 97 

assembly, and a revised system of taxation which will bear 
hardest on those who can best afford it. 

To carry out this as yet somewhat inarticulate national 
program of social improvement, America is beginning to 
be conscious of its need of efficiency if democracy is to stand 
the strain which is being put upon it. There is no antago- 
nism between the ideas of democracy and efficiency. If 
democracy isn't efficient, it will fail. If efficiency isn't 
democratic, it will throttle us. 

There are two broad ways in which the church may be 
connected with social work. One is for the home to do it; 
and the other is for it to inspire and encourage community 
action. I do not say that these are necessarily mutually 
exclusive. In fact, it is very hard to inspire and to encour- 
age without a pragmatic background of action from which 
to vitalize the inspiration. But still, taken broadly, we 
know what we mean when we speak of the "institutional" 
church and the "inspirational" church. 

I would like to point out a few dangers that the insti- 
tutional church may run into. And here I speak from 
experience, not from theory. In almost all crowded com- 
munities, there are many different types of people, with 
very different points of view and traditions. I counted 
up one day the number of countries from which the people 
come who live on the little block in New York City which 
is my home. I found there were twenty-six. There are 
churches of every denomination in our neighborhood. An 
institutional church will perhaps naturally take this stand : 
It will say, "We offer all types of interesting associational 
life to this community, and we take everyone in, regardless 
of race or creed. We will build up a great center for com- 
munity life." 

Now, this sounds very liberal, but unfortunately, mem- 
bers of other religious groups may see in this attitude an 
ulterior motive at work — the desire to increase member- 
ship, to make a good showing. In other words a working 
for gain. This creates a natural suspicion among what 
7 



98 YOUNG people's service 

get to be, in such a case, competing groups. There is a 
great deal of truth in this criticism. Children wander 
about from church to church, according to the attractions 
offered, and the tone of the church becomes that of an 
eleemosynary institution, material and spiritual, rather 
than a means of evoking the inner powers of the individual, 
and eliciting his loyalty and creative effort. 

Of course, in an entirely homogeneous community, the 
situation would be quite different. If all the people in a 
given community were Baptists, or Roman Catholics, or 
whatever it might be, then the church could be an appro- 
priate community center. But where the district is, as 
is generally the case in American industrial communities, 
highly complex, no church can make its appeal to the com- 
munity as a whole as a communal center, without creating 
suspicion. It carries within itself the seeds of failure. 

I believe, therefore, the second type of church, which 
inspires its members for community action, but which 
does not itself become a community institution, is better 
equipped to fulfil its purpose. The office of such a church 
is so to vitalize the desires of the members that they will 
want to express their faith in the coming of the Kingdom 
of God, by doing something to make it come. In other 
words, the whole principle ought to be not how to build 
up the church, but how to make the church useful to the 
world, not to save the church, but how shall the church 
lose itself for the world. This does not hinder in any way 
the social life of the church ; but it confines that social life 
to its own group. 

Often the opportunities in cities for social life in the home 
are entirely non-existent. In this case it is certainly appro- 
priate in every way that the church should provide that 
social life for the members of the parish, which their home 
life can never give. 

But how can this inspirational type of church be of 
specific use to the community? The members must cer- 
tainly study their community needs, and always be able 
to understand them, and then co-operate with the members 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 99 

of Other churches and other groups, and still other groups, 
in order jointly to be able to meet these needs. 

A school is thus far better adapted to be a community 
center, than a church, for at the school more groups can 
unite. Nor is there any of the mutual suspicion, which 
arises in the case of any organization seeking membership, 
attempting to be a community center. But, after all, what 
is our community? This is the same old question, "Who 
is our neighbor?" The world is the final neighborhood, 
and the ultimate question is: How can the church serve 
the world? This is the question that every Christian is 
asking himself at this solemn crisis. Is Christianity going 
to accept the challenge that war, poverty and hatred 
make upon it? 

Christianity can only be realized by practice. If we ever 
expect to have international morality established, we can 
only do this by an ever-increased international experience. 
Pragmatism applies to internationalism as it does elsewhere. 
In fact, much has already been done. If we are appalled 
at the great breakdown in our civilization, yet we have 
also reason for encouragement. Many of the great hostili- 
ties we witness are worm-eaten within. Even when gal- 
vanized to the present white heat of enmity the individual 
combatants have misgivings. In the older wars, it was 
not so common for each to blame the other for beginning 
the war — nor was war so commonly regarded as a disaster. 
It is not gloried in, as in the past. In other words, we have 
progressed. We do not burn witches; we do not use tor- 
ture; we have conquered some of the more terrible aspects 
of disease and suffering. Such progress as we have made, 
has been made through an ever-increased understanding of 
one person by another, of one group by another, of one 
nation by another. 

Christianity has said to us, "We can save our lives only 
by losing them." We know that this is literally true — 
that as individuals we gain in personality only as we are 
able to live in the life of others. That person who lives 
only his own life is not a person. As a man learns to live 



100 YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 

in the life of his wife, his children, his friends, he grows. 
If he learns in addition how to live in the life of those 
he has thought of as enemies, his personality gains enor- 
mously, and the enmity is thereby weakened. It is by 
the very extension of this principle, which we recognize 
as fundamentally Christian, that we can expect the church's 
greatest service to the world. Nations must learn to live in 
the life of other nations, as individuals gain their personality 
through living in the lives of other individuals. 

The basis of understanding is respect. We can never 
expect to have this national point of view, until our whole 
system of education is permeated with it. We must teach 
our children, in Sunday-school and in day school, to under- 
stand and to respect great differing national and racial types. 
We must make history in this new sense the center of our 
curriculum. 

One of the most painful things for us to witness at this 
terrible time is the practical suspension of both the intel- 
lectual and the spiritual faculties of many people in their 
criticisms. Violence of feeling takes the place of an at- 
tempt to see things as they are. This unwillingness to 
try to see the point of view of alien races or groups is 
distinctly anti-Christian. This seems to me to he the most 
fundamental task in relation to social work, steadily to try to 
bring about a state of understanding. 

I should suppose that the missionary societies could be 
revolutionized by an insistence upon this educational 
emphasis. If it is true that nations must live in the life 
of other nations as a necessary preliminary to universal 
peace, it is certainly obvious that the expression of women's 
point of view as half the nation's, must be made public 
and available for use in contemplated changes. 

Surely, if we are to understand the life of nations, we 
must understand the life of the workers and the life and 
aims and aspirations of women, and the church should 
encourage the interaction, as well as the common under- 
standing of all groups. United Christianity does not seem 
to me to involve a mechanical or administrative union, 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE Id 

but rather a passionate, united and powerful insistence 
upon the expression of Christian life, through this very 
extension of the idea of personality as applied to interna- 
tional relationships. 

I suppose that this attitude might really be regarded as 
the final criterion by which one would be able to say whether 
a person is a Christian or not. 

For malpractice, county medical boards can get rid of 
those who are false to their medical oath. All kinds of 
people can be debarred from association with their profes- 
sional groups. The ban of the church has gone out of 
style. I don't suppose it would be feasible to try to revive 
excommunication. But, if it were, this would be the one 
thing which ought to exclude the possibility of a person's 
using the name of Christian, if he should fail to try to live 
in the life of others, if he sets up for himself a little house 
from which he excludes all visitors — where he has a nicely 
assorted set of little thought-proof opinions which he 
doesn't intend the existence of any outside facts shall ever 
threaten. In the long run, the only place to keep house 
is in the world, and all our other houses have got to be 
placed in that setting. Provincialism is no particular sin, 
geographically considered, but spiritually it is unforgivable 
in an ever more complicated world. 

In its relation to the social problem has not the Congre- 
gational Church a distinctive role to play? Each social 
grouping has its own values. Congregationalism is un- 
hampered, if not in fact at least in theory and in active 
possibility, by the past. It wields no authority. It 
abides by the common convictions and experiences of the 
congregation. This is democracy in religion and it has 
a leverage which is full of possibility. 

I suppose the beauty and the danger of all charming 
reunions and anniversaries such as this is the tendency to 
look backward as to a golden age. We know when we 
reflect that there never was a golden age. But we know 
also this that we intend to have an age that is going to be 
more golden as it goes along. 



102 YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 

The long and honorable history of this church, inter- 
woven as it has been with all the dramatic story of these 
two hundred and fifty years of American life, ought to be but 
a gracious tradition from the background of which a new 
and more creative life will spring, ready to meet the strain 
and unprecedented complexity and variety of the present. 

Some one has recently said, "The golden rule works best 
among equals." The conditions under which our social 
hopes can become realizable must be wrought out with the 
co-operation of every available factor. To this end the 
church as a whole, and to be specific, this church in partic- 
ular, has its own special contribution to make. It is for 
you, the young people of this church, to discover what 
that contribution is and to make it. 

It was my friend, Dr. Nash, who defined religion as "the 
conviction that the Universe is not unfriendly to our highest 
social hopes." It is that conviction that sustains us as 
we look out on a world which has cast adrift from the old 
moorings. Uncertain, it is true, in regard to the adventures 
it will meet, and sailing a somewhat uncertain course, still 
it is getting new knowledge on the way as to the port it 
intends to make and the course it is to run to reach it. 



ADDRESS: THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION 

By Arthur Gordon Webster, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D., 
Professor of Physics in Clark University, Wor- 
cester, Mass. 

IT IS no small privilege for me to be able to stand here and 
add my tribute of respect and congratulation to this 
old and honorable church, with which I have so many 
associations, and of which I am not only a graduate, but 
still a member. I cannot quite say that I was born into this 
church, but I can very nearly do so, having begun to attend 
it at the age of four years. In seeking for a subject upon 
which to speak, and in consideration of the historical aspects 
of this celebration, it seemed to me that I could do no better, 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE IO3 

as this is a young people's service, than to assume the priv- 
ilege of an elderly man, and give some reminiscences of my 
early years in this place, with some observations and advice 
to which my experience has led me. I shall draw only on 
my own memory, which covers nearly half a century, and 
if there are here a few older persons, who could be more 
sure of their facts, my only excuse is that as I have lived 
elsewhere for a long time I perhaps notice the changes more 
than they do. I shall try to show why I consider the New- 
ton Centre of fifty years ago a good place to have begun 
life in, and what effect the changes since that time may 
have produced upon American life and character. 

At the close of the Civil War, Newton Centre was a small 
village, one of the number sprawling over a large area that 
composed the Town of Newton, with long unoccupied 
spaces between. On the common was the old wooden 
school-house, containing both grammar and high schools, 
later moved across the way, and still later transported to 
its present position on the other side of the lake where it 
became the fire-alarm factory. It was then replaced by a 
larger wooden structure for the grammar school, whose 
burning at night was one of the events of my early child- 
hood. This was replaced by another of the same sort, which 
stood until removed to make way for the present fine brick 
school-house. Across the street, where the Methodist 
Church now stands, stood the town house, in which the 
town meetings were held, showing that we were nearer the 
political center of the town then than we are now. Behind 
the town house stood the fire-engine house, in which stood 
the small hand-engine known as "Eagle 6." There were 
but two churches, this one and the Baptist, both wooden 
buildings without pretensions, although the sharp spire of 
the church on this site was a pleasing addition to the land- 
scape. The horse sheds stood yonder on Bowen Street. 
The nearest Catholic Church was in Watertown, whither 
our pious domestics repaired. The only shops were in the 
old wooden Cousens block on Station Street, where a mar- 
ket, grocery, and plumber's shop offered their wares without 



104 YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE 

competition, in the friendly company of the post-olifice, 
presided over by one of our one-legged veterans of the war. 
The war was a very real thing, even to those of us too young 
to remember it, for old soldiers with one leg or arm were 
common sights, and the exercises of the Post at the ceme- 
tery on Memorial Day produced a most vivid impression. 

The single track railway, crossing all streets at grade, 
known then as the Boston, Hartford and Erie R. R., which 
constituted our only connection with the great world, ran 
perhaps a half dozen leisurely trains a day to Boston, the 
circuit road being unthought of. Of course there were no 
trolley roads, nor even horse-cars. I presume there was no 
hotel in the town, probably not a restaurant. There were 
no clubs of any sort. There were no police, but the sexton 
of this church, in the intervals of his undertaking business, 
acted as constable, and coped with such crime as there was. 
Most of the houses in the village were clustered around the 
common, the hill, and Beacon and Center Streets. From 
our house at the top of Beacon Street we had an uninter- 
rupted view of the lake, then generally known as "Baptist 
Pond," which was then surrounded by woods, except on 
the side of the railroad. There was but one house, that of 
the late E. M. Fowle, on the shore, and Lake Avenue ex- 
tended only to this house. Newton was certainly a rural 
community, and several of the prominent members of this 
church lived by farming. Life was very simple and health- 
ful, and we were free from the excitements of the present 
day, with the telephone, the automobile, and the moving 
pictures. 

I well remember the austere interior of the old church, 
and the impression made on me by the sermons of Dr. 
Furber, then in his prime. For him I always had a feeling 
of veneration, not unmixed with fear. I shall never forget 
the extremely solemn manner in which he pronounced 
the sentences of the communion, nor have I ever since 
heard anyone pronounce them in quite so moving a way. 
The religion of those days was a rather austere one. We 
heard much of predestination, of total depravity, of the 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE IO5 

theory of the atonement, and of the more sombre side of 
religion, of which we were told this morning. Science was 
distrusted as ungodly, and we were warned against the 
writings of Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall. Dr. Furber was 
a very serious man, and did not laugh often, but exerted 
a great influence by the absolute purity of his character 
and the sincerity of his convictions. No less potent was 
the influence of his gifted consort, considerably his senior, 
whose Sunday-school class for the women was a very notable 
feature of the church, and from which Mrs. Furber's in- 
fluence radiated to all the church. 

I am afraid our outlook on the world was somewhat 
restricted. Our political views may be inferred from an 
incident that I remember once on election day. Having 
during recess at school penetrated upstairs to the only hall 
in the village, where the balloting was in progress, I saw Dr. 
Furber coming up the stairs to vote. He was approached 
by Mr. Samuel Jackson, one of our members, and the town 
tax collector, who offered him a Democratic ballot. Draw- 
ing himself up with dignity Dr. Furber exclaimed in freezing 
tones, "Mr. Jackson, I love my country far too well to ever 
use that ballot!" As a matter of fact, most of us thought 
very nearly alike. Unitarians were as scarce as Democrats 
in our village. Morals were austere, amusements few, 
intoxicants almost unknown. There were no sports, in 
the present sense; dancing and card playing were severely 
frowned upon. I had to go to Brookline to learn to dance 
from a French dancing master. This is a decided contrast to 
the present day, when people between fifty and sixty take 
pains to learn the tango and maxixe, which are no sooner 
learned than they are superseded by something new. Music 
was hard to hear, except in Boston, but we did frequently 
have lectures in the school hall, by some very distinguished 
people. I remember hearing Wendell Phillips and Mrs. 
Mary Livermore. Few members of this church had been 
to Europe, and few had seen a good picture. Architecture 
was unknown in America. There were few college graduates 
in the church. 



I06 YOUNG people's SERVICE 

You are saying that it was a very dull place. We did 
not think so. I think I have already said enough to show 
some of the advantages of being born at that time in this 
place. The schools were good and generally taught by our 
own people. The late Mr. D. L. Farnham, and afterward 
Mr. Harwood, still with us in this church, were the efficient 
principals of the school, and I remember also Miss Maria 
Wood, still with us, and her sister Sarah, now Mrs. Avery 
Rand, as well as Miss Searle, who afterwards married Mr. 
E. W. Noyes, long superintendent of our Sunday-school. 
There were few foreigners, as we called them, in the com- 
munity, a fair sprinkling of Irish, and a dozen or so Germans 
in the school being all, and foreign teachers being unknown. 
I remember when the first Italians came to build the aque- 
duct. It was a Yankee community. Its strong point was 
its complete democracy. There were no poor in the whole 
village, and hardly any rich. If there were any rich 
people we children did not know it, and the few houses of 
the moderately rich presented an external appearance that 
did not distinguish them from the others. This fact I 
consider an inestimable advantage. There could be no 
cliques or divisions among the children ; there were even no 
private schools, as none such could have competed with the 
public schools. The present exaggeration of class feeling, 
the display that makes for envy and hatred, had no exist- 
ence. Our pleasures, as I have already said, were simple, 
and our life on the whole serious. Nearly everyone went 
to church on Sunday, and if he did not was looked upon with 
suspicion. Nearly every family subscribed to a religious 
paper, which was read with interest. We had one illustrated 
magazine. Harper's, and one children's paper, the Youth's 
Companion. Books were few, and almost all children's 
books came from England. When the Nursery Magazine 
was started, many of its illustrations were stolen from Ger- 
many. In general this country depended largely on abroad 
for its ideas in intellectual matters. 

Let us contrast the situation that I have described with 
what we see to-day, and attempt to detect some of the 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE I07 

effects upon education, character, and religion. During 
the last fifty years, since the termination of the Civil War, 
this country has been traversing a period of prosperity and 
material development such as the world has seldom seen. 
Riches have increased until we are the richest nation in the 
world. Huge sums are spent for government, for education, 
for the advancement of science and art, and even of religion. 
We have been fortunately free from political cataclysms, 
and have been spared the crushing burden of armaments 
for national defense. In short we have had nothing to do 
but develop our land and improve ourselves. It behooves 
us occasionally to take an account of stock and examine 
how far we have succeeded. During this period the sciences 
have had an enormous development, and even if this coun- 
try has not contributed in large measure to the develop- 
ment of new principles, it has done so in high degree to the 
applications of the physical sciences. The fact cannot be 
ignored that many of the symptoms that I shall point out 
are closely connected with the application of science and 
the increase of the convenience of life. During this period 
we have also had the enormous immigration from Europe 
and Asia, and this has produced a marked change in the 
national character. Do not for a moment understand me 
to say that I blame any of our troubles upon these new- 
comers, for I believe that the responsibility is our own. In 
the city where I live, the third in population in New Eng- 
land, thirty or forty languages are spoken, and, what is 
more to the point, the children of these foreigners are getting 
the prizes away from our children. At a recent graduation 
at a high school, there sat in front of me a young man named 
Hillman, one of the great race that gave us Moses, together 
with his father, mother, and several aunts, to see his sister, 
Ruby, graduate and speak her part. After congratulating 
him and his sister, I said "Mr. Hillman, your folks are 
getting things away from our folks, and we cannot help 
it." He then told me with pride, that in his home were 
nine diplomas of one sort or another from school, college, 
or professional school. In how many Yankee families is 



I08 YOUNG people's SERVICE 

this the case, even in this church? These fifty years of 
prosperity have produced in our young people the feeUng 
that it is unnecessary to work. " Father will pay the bills" 
is a sentiment too frequently heard. These newcomers 
have a far higher sense of the value of education and of the 
intellectual life than our own children, owing to the fact 
that they have many of them been deprived for a long time 
of such advantages as are here freely offered them. 

The main note that I seem to discern in American life 
to-day is that of the pursuit of pleasure as the main object 
in life. I do not mean to say that the almost Puritanical 
distrust of pleasure of fifty years ago was to be justified, 
but I do mean that life is a serious business, that we must 
all learn that there is such a thing as duty, and that it must 
be done. This I consider the most necessary part of edu- 
cation, and of religion too, for that matter, and any edu- 
cation or religion that does not impart that knowledge is a 
failure. I do not blame this spirit of pleasure on the young, 
it is a symptom of all ages to-day. Where in the world, 
since the times of decadence of the Romans, could be seen 
the spectacle of forty thousand people wildly cheering the 
performance of a trained band of gladiators performing 
what is after all merely boys' play. Perhaps such a spec- 
tacle may be seen in the bullring in Madrid, I do not know. 
Again I say nothing against healthy sport and amusement. 
The swimming in and skating on the pond, the walks and 
tramps in the woods, the rides and drives in the country 
which we enjoyed, certainly did us much more good than 
the contemplation by persons who never walk or play them- 
selves of the work of paid players. 

One of the chief results of education should be to give a 
proper sense of values. You may remember Mrs. Mala- 
prop's admiration of the young man who possessed "a nice 
derangement of epitaphs." I often feel that one of the 
troubles with this country to-day is a nice derangement of 
values. Putting more value on what is play than on what 
is work is certainly a case in point. Again, the invention 
of the automobile, a most wonderful triumph of engineering 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE IO9 

skill, made possible by the development of the principles 
of the science of thermodynamics and by the production of 
gasoline in great quantities, has had a marked influence 
on society. Without doubt improvements in transporta- 
tion and communication are among the chief advances in 
civilization, but what shall we say when the darting aim- 
lessly about the country at a speed of fifty miles an hour is 
made the chief interest of a large class in the community! 
I have said that fifty years ago it was impossible to tell the 
poor from the rich in this village. What shall be said of a 
class that is willing to exhibit the spending of ten thousand 
dollars in a single vehicle, and to thrust it in the faces of the 
less pampered classes! Compare the simple carryall at 
the station then with the luxurious limousine of to-day. 
It is undoubtedly impossible to accuse a machine of being 
immoral, but the automobile seems to lend itself easily to 
all sorts of immoralities, from the murderous assault of the 
Paris apaches to the wasting of time by the young in their 
most precious years. What of a machine that converts a 
peaceful and kind-hearted citizen into a ruthless disregarder 
of the rights of others, contemplating with equanimity the 
havoc that he has made in his fell course? Many a boy 
to-day finds his highest aspiration in the wish to drive an 
automobile, and many a girl considers such to be her hero. 
At least I judge this from looking at the advertisements, 
whether of collars, of chocolates, or of novels, for we now 
have not only an automobile magazine but an automobile 
fiction and drama. I am free to say that I see nothing 
particularly manly in holding the helm of a mechanically 
propelled vehicle. 

There is much complaint to-day of the inefficiency of our 
schools and colleges. Business men say our graduates of 
colleges can neither reckon nor write and speak correctly. 
Clergymen complain that their people do not come to 
church, and at any rate the majority of the community do 
not affiliate themselves with churches at all. The reason 
in both cases is the same. It is the old trouble of the cares 
of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts 



no YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICE 

of Other things entering in. Young people do not consider 
their duties to be the main thing. Neither do their parents, 
and the lusts of the automobile and of the golf links choke 
the word, and it becometh unfruitful. The great social 
problem of the times has been due to the concentration of 
the population in cities, and the immense complication of 
life. The telephone has put us all in communication with 
each other, and privacy no longer exists. Everyone is in 
a rush, and no one has any time to think. Although we 
have to-day fifty magazines where we before had one, for 
thirty-five cents, twenty-five, fifteen and ten, with the 
penny dreadful and the Sunday red and yellow terrors, the 
good reading is not so common as it used to be. In this 
month's Atlantic Monthly Mr. George P. Brett deplores the 
lack of good reading in this country to-day. Even the 
theatre, which has become very popular, is not of a high 
quality, and in the hustle of the day is now being supplanted 
by the moving picture theater, which appeals to those who 
have no ears to hear, and can only see. But even this is 
not enough, for we now have the moving pictures made into 
magazines. The wonderful phonograph has become an 
instrument for the dissemination of bad taste in music. 
But I have said enough of the ways to waste time, which is 
to me the one cardinal sin. Is there not still work to be 
done? Who shall do it? Is there not such a thing as good 
taste, and can it not be inculcated? This is the task of the 
school, and of the church as well. I do not propose to dis- 
cuss the relations of the church to education, and whether 
it should carry on schools of its own, for in this I do not 
believe. But the church should set standards of life and 
achievement that should enable its members to always 
influence education and to uplift its ideals. 

I believe the church will never again occupy that position 
which it did in the early days of this country. The spread 
of education has rendered it impossible for any one member 
of a community to inform and control the thoughts of his 
flock as was possible in more primitive times. Neither do 
I believe that an insistence on dogmas has any place in the 



YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICE III 

life of the church to-day. It must teach character, and 
that not merely by precept, but by example. The church 
must take a leading part in the social amelioration which is 
such an encouraging symptom in our life to-day. And in 
that it must be supported by the school. In my opinion 
the chief criticism that can be made of our schools to-day 
is that they do not teach character as the first end of all 
education. 

At present this country spends more for education than 
any other in the world, now or heretofore. And what is the 
result? We have, it is true, a rather high grade of general 
education, not so high, to be sure, as Sweden, Switzerland, 
or Germany, but we are singularly lacking in intellectual 
giants. We are a high plateau, with few peaks, a most 
monotonous landscape. In the last fifty years we have, to 
be sure, produced some painters, sculptors and musicians 
of distinction, and have developed architecture, but we 
have been far from doing our part in literature, scientific 
discovery, or the diffusion of good taste. Our great invest- 
ment in education has produced a pitiably small dividend. 
No wonder that the Germans, that particularly thorough 
people, whether in the arts of peace or war, look upon us as 
superficial and inferior in culture. 

What then are the needs of the hour? A prophet! I 
do not mean a revivalist, but someone who shall convince 
us, young and old, that work is greater than play, and that 
it must be done. Young people, bestir yourselves! Re- 
member that life gives nothing to mortals without great 
labor. Get an enthusiasm, resolve to create something 
that did not exist before. Find out what is in the world, 
and what has been in the world in times past, for nothing 
is more certain than that as human nature was so it is 
to-day. Learn the languages of other peoples, so that you 
can understand them, and not hate them, as the nations of 
Europe are doing to-day. For God hath made of one 
blood all nations of the earth. Above all things cultivate 
an interest in, and a reverence for, your own great language, 
for a proper use of the vernacular is the first mark of aa 



112 YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICE 

educated man. Fix your eyes on some attainment. Re- 
member that business is not all, nor the principal thing. 
Remember that you have to put this country in her place 
as a great power, not by a huge navy nor by great crops, but 
by her moral and intellectual superiority. I should like 
to speak of the attractions of science as a career, for I know 
of nothing more satisfying than the intimate study of the 
workings of nature, and the wringing from her of her pre- 
cious secrets. But whether it be science, art, literature, or 
social service is of small moment, so that you do it with all 
your might, that is, do it unto the Lord! Then shall our 
country be a great power, and of her we may sing. 



ADDRESS: YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE CHURCH 

By Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., LL.D., President of 
THE United Society of Christian Endeavor 

I DID not have the kindly suggestion that I should bring 
with me a manuscript to-night as others seem to have 
had, so I fear that my remarks will appear very ragged and 
disconnected in comparison with these delightful addresses. 

I find it is the proper thing to "reminisce" a little this 
evening. I never had the privilege of being a member of 
the church of Newton Center, but I can go back even more 
than fifty years in my reminiscences. I see that the third 
pastor of this church was John Cotton, and John Cotton 
was one of my adopted mother's ancestors, and among one 
of the heirlooms which I treasure is a napkin which was 
probably woven, certainly owned, by Cotton Mather's 
mother, who was my mother's great-great-grandmother, 
so I think I have a right to a very slight part in this de- 
lightful celebration, in which I am very glad to have any 
part at all. 

It seems to me that it is one of the significant signs of 
the times that the young people are recognized in these 
church celebrations. I do not believe it was so two hun- 
dred and fifty years ago ; I do not believe there would have 



YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICE II3 

been an evening set apart for a young people's meeting 
and a young people's celebration. Within the last four 
weeks I have had the pleasure of attending four such church 
anniversaries as this; none of them in such a historic 
church, but all of them desired at such a time, to rec- 
ognize the young people of the church. 

And yet, in the olden days, young people's societies were 
not altogether unknown. In fact, in the early days of this 
church there was a society in some of the churches very 
much like the young people's societies of Christian En- 
deavor of to-day. I do not know whether or not there 
was one in this church, but in a good many of the churches 
in the vicinity there was a society copied after one invented 
by Cotton Mather, although it was not for many years 
after our modern young people's societies were started 
that I heard of these ancient young people's societies. 
Yet there were such, and they had rules and regulations 
which were not unlike those of to-day. They were, perhaps, 
a little more stringent in those days. They were expected 
to have two-hour meetings; each one was expected to take 
part in the meeting and in the prayers, and the rules go on 
to say that "there shall be two sermons and a hymn an- 
nexed, and if any one of the members is absent from three 
meetings in succession they shall be obliterated. '' I sup- 
pose that means that they shall be obliterated from the 
roll of members. 

Well, you see, there is nothing new under the sun, and 
young people's societies of to-day can go back a long way 
to find their ancestors. And yet these ancient societies 
did not flourish long or very extensively. There were 
perhaps thirty modeled after Cotton Mather's plan in 
Massachusetts. Many churches looked askance at what 
they considered an assumption of power on the part of the 
young people, and after awhile these organizations seem to 
have died out. Yet while they existed they did good work. 
I think the chief reason why they did not last long, why 
they did not have the wide influence in every country and 
every language, as they do to-day, was that the people of 

8 



114 YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICE 

those days did not have the great vision which the young 
people of to-day have. They had the sense of duty, they 
had the idea of loyalty, they did love Jesus Christ and His 
Church, but they did not find much work to do for Him. 
The missionary idea was not then born, and because it was 
not born the young people did not have the present day 
channels of usefulness; they did not know the great vision 
of what they might do in the name of Christ for this world 
of ours. 

Dr. Burton of the Home Missionary Society tells a story 
about Professor Morse, inventor of the telegraph. He 
went to England in the early days, when the idea of the 
Atlantic telegraph was struggling for recognition, but he 
found that the Englishmen to whom he went were much 
more interested in fox-hounds. He tried to persuade them 
that there was something in this invention of his, but found 
that their attention was given wholly to fox-hounds, and 
it was fox-hounds and fox-hounds and only fox-hounds 
wherever he went. 

At last he said to one of these English noblemen whom he 
wished to interest, "Can you think of a fox-hound as big 
as the Houses of Parliament?" and he said, "That is a 
pretty big order, but I don't know but I can think of it." 
"Well," the professor said, "Can you imagine a fox-hound 
as big as all Europe?" The nobleman thought he could. 
Professor Morse continued, "Can you imagine a fox-hound 
as long as the Atlantic Ocean?" He thought possibly he 
could. Then said Professor Morse, "I want to tell you 
about a fox-hound so big that you can pinch his tail in 
Liverpool and he will bark in Boston." So he was able to 
interest his financial backers. 

Now I think that the young people of to-day have a vis- 
ion of a larger life and a larger possibility of service than 
the young people of the olden days could have had, and 
it is because the missionary idea has been born in this 
last century and has taken hold of the hearts of the young 
people. 

Every time the contribution box is passed up and down 



YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICE II5 

these aisles you young people ought to have in mind other 
young people of China, and of India, and of Turkey, for 
that contribution box is eloquent of the needs of these 
people. 

Sometimes, I know, you are thought to be very indiffer- 
ent to these things, and it is supposed that you have very 
little desire for anything but your own amusements, I 
have not much sympathy with this criticism of young 
people. I think that one of the most courageous things a 
young person can do is to stand up and say he is a follower 
of Jesus Christ and wants to do something for Him. That 
is only the beginning and the preparation and the inspira- 
tion for the larger service which he can do for this Master 
whom he has professed to love and serve. In this connec- 
tion, since there are so many young people in this audience, 
I think I can venture to tell you about some work the 
Chicago young people are doing. If you could see the 
Chicago Christian Endeavor Year Book, recently published, 
you would see what they are doing, how they support a 
hospital, how they pay the salary of a minister, who goes 
daily to this hospital, how they carry music and flowers 
and comfort of many kinds, how they help the preaching 
at street corners, how they do what they can for the sailors 
on the Great Lakes, how they help the prisoners, and you 
would be surprised and delighted at the amount and qual- 
ity of this work. This book of one hundred and fifty 
pages is packed full of what the young people of Chicago 
are trying to do right in their own city along these lines of 
religious endeavor. And what they accomplish there is 
only a sample of what they are trying to do in all parts of 
the world. 

I also think that one of the advantages that the young 
people's societies of to-day have over those of olden times 
is the more cosmopolitan out-look they have. Our hearts 
go out in sympathy in these days in so many directions, 
to so many parts of the world. It is probable, young people, 
that you have Christian Endeavor friends fighting in all 
the armies of the warring nations. I have friends in the 



Il6 YOUNG people's SERVICE 

Austrian army and in the German army, and the British 
and French and Belgian and Russian armies, and every- 
one of them thinks he is right. They all believe thay are 
fighting for right and civilization. It seems to me that 
it is for us to keep our hearts open, not only in a cold 
neutrality, but sympathetically for those who believe they 
are fighting for a righteous cause. 

I believe, too, that the young people of to-day will have 
something to do for peace when this war is over. This war 
will not last forever, and surely Christian people should 
cultivate such sympathies with all that they can exert 
some influence in a neutral country like ours to heal these 
awful wounds. It was only last June, in Great Britain, 
at a great national Christian Endeavor convention, that 
I saw several Germans who had come across the Channel 
to rejoice with their English brothers, and, in the great 
Queen's Hall of London, before an audience of three or 
four thousand, I saw two of these Germans stand on the 
platform, holding two flags, one a Union Jack and the 
other the German flag, and, entwining them together, 
they expressed their great joy in being there with their 
English brothers. Yet, it was scarcely two months after 
that that they went into the German army, one as an officer 
fighting against the Russians on the east, and the other 
against the French on the west. And they did this because 
they felt it was their duty. We must respect their honesty, 
whatever we think of the merits of the different countries 
at war, and I believe there is nothing in the world which 
will bring these nations together like the love of Jesus 
Christ, and of His people one for another. 

It was my privilege to be in South Africa shortly before 
the Boer War. I had the pleasure of talking with old 
President Kruger of the Free State and many other leaders 
on both sides. Soon after that the war broke out, and it 
was a most bitter war, as you know, and there was intense 
feeling on both sides. But it was only three or four months 
after the war that I was in South Africa again, and in the 
Adderby St. Dutch Reformed Church I saw around the 



YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICE II7 

wall the mottoes, "Welcome to South Africa," "For 
Christ and the Church," "All Ye Are Brethren." Be- 
fore the meeting was over we all stood together and re- 
peated, some in one language and some in another, the 
twenty- third Psalm, and then we stood again and repeated 
the Lord's Prayer, and strangest of all, before that meeting 
was over, we all stood up and sang, 

"Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love." 

There they were, the young men of those two nations that 
only a few months before had been lighting each other 
savagely. I saw in the audience young Boers who had 
been in prison camps in St. Helena and Ceylon, and yet 
they were fraternizing with the British young men whom 
they had been fighting. And so I believe that nothing of 
this sort is impossible for God; that these nations now at 
war can be brought together, and that we in Christian 
America, especially the young people of our great country, 
can serve in this way our country and our God. 

I often like to think of that great monument in South 
America to the Prince of Peace. Some of you, perhaps, 
have seen it, or at least have seen the pictures of the Christ 
of the Andes. It is a most impressive monument as it 
stands there on the highest pass where the road crosses 
the Andes from Argentina to Chili. It is a great bronze 
statue of Christ our Lord, and you know the story of it. 
Some years ago these two republics, Argentina and Chili, 
were about to go to war. Some of these South American 
wars have been terribly disastrous, like the war between 
Brazil and Paraguay a few years ago. This threatened to 
be just such a war of extermination. The nations had 
bought their iron-clads and mobilized their soldiers. War 
was about to be declared when a better spirit prevailed just 
at the last moment, and the nations decided to leave the 
question in issue to arbitration, and they asked Edward, 
who was then King of Britain, to state what should be the 
boundary line between their two nations. He decided it 



Il8 YOUNG people's SERVICE 

should be the highest range of the Andes for two thousand 
miles from the Chaco on the north to the Straits of 
Magellan on the south. Well, they accepted this decision. 
Would to God that the nations that are now at war could 
thus have settled their disputes! But these two republics 
settled theirs in this way, and then they were so rejoiced 
at the result that they contributed large sums of money, 
and out of the cannon with which the war was to have 
been waged, they cast this statue and put it on the moun- 
tain road between the two nations. But the thing that 
most impressed me about this monument was the motto 
from the Ephesians, which is on the base of the statue, and 
it is this: "He is our peace who hath made both one." Is 
not that a beautiful motto? Is not that a magnificent 
statue, and is it not true of these nations now at war, and 
is it not true of us, too, that He makes us one, and if we 
follow Him in spirit and if we have His love in our 
hearts we may do our small part to bring about the rec- 
onciliation of the world? 

Oh, young people, get these great visions, and you, too, 
will be among those who, in the future days, will bless this 
old world of ours. God grant it! 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

MONDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 2, 1914 




Rev. THEODORE JAMES HOLMES 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 



A LARGE audience gathered in the church at three 
o'clock, and joined in singing the opening hymn, 
"Jesus shall reign, where'er the sun." Rev. James L. 
Barton, D.D., LL.D., Foreign Secretary of the American 
Board and a member of the church, presided and intro- 
duced those who brought greetings and congratulations. 
The chairman made no address, but, as he rose to intro- 
duce the speakers, he said: 

"This is a service not of the old First Church but a serv- 
ice belonging to the friends of the church who have come 
with their congratulations and greetings. This is a time in 
which the church keeps silent, and with expectant and 
attentive ears is to listen to the messages brought by our 
friends and neighbors. We have a remarkable list of speak- 
ers for this afternoon's session. My duty, therefore, is 
simply to present the speakers in the order arranged by the 
committee. I cannot introduce them. 

"This church was organized before there was any town 
of Newton and long before the city of Newton had come 
into existence. From the beginning, the membership of this 
church has had a large share in shaping the life of the town 
and later of the city itself. Members of this church have 
held positions of conspicuous usefulness in the service of the 
city. We are privileged to-day to have with us His Honor 
the Mayor, a member of Eliot Church, Newton, who will 
now bring us a message from the city." 



122 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

ADDRESS BY HIS HONOR EDWIN O. CHILDS, 
MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEWTON 

I AM grateful for the privilege of being allowed to partici- 
pate in the exercises of these anniversary days, these 
days which mark the beginning of The First Church of 
Newton. 

It is most appropriate that upon this great occasion the 
greetings and good wishes of the citizens of Newton should 
be expressed through me to you, because the church bears 
a vital relation to the city. 

The city with churches is a safe city in which to live. 
That is one of the reasons why we all like Newton. 

The church is the organized conscience of the community 
— the place from whence radiates that influence which 
makes oUr citizenship. 

I am glad, therefore, as the representative of all the people 
of this city, of every creed and denomination, to congratu- 
late this church upon her long and honorable record. 

And I assure you that with these official greetings come 
my own personal good wishes none the less sincere. 

The First Church of Newton has always had my highest 
regard, for it has been my privilege to have been so situated 
as perhaps better than most of you to realize her far- 
reaching influence for good, both direct and indirect, in this 
city. 

I happen to be a member of Eliot Church, the daughter 
of this church, and for ten years I have had a class in the 
Sunday-school of the granddaughter of this church, the 
church at North Village. 

We all know the story of the influence of this church here 
in Newton Centre. There is another story of her indirect 
influence quite as interesting. 

When the mother church sent out the Jacksons, the 
Bacons, the Trowbridges, and the Cobbs with others to 
establish the church at Newton she set in motion spiritual 
forces which have counted for righteousness in this city. 

At the fiftieth anniversary of Eliot Church, Dr. Well- 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 123 

man, a former pastor, said that the greatest thing which 
Eliot Church had done in all her history was the sending 
out of one of her young men, Samuel E. Lowry, and the 
help which she gave him in establishing and maintaining the 
church at North Village. 

Knowing as I do the accomplishments of this church here 
in this village and realizing the extent of her influence 
through churches established in other sections of our city, 
I can but feel proud of the old First Church and her history 
and rejoice with you in her successes. 

And the thought which is uppermost in my mind to-day, 
as I know it is uppermost in yours, is of the godly men and 
noble women who have labored here. A very few of them 
are still with us. Most of them have moved on into that 
"other city" which lies beyond the streams of faith. 

The men and women of the earliest years laid foundations 
broad and deep. Men and women of later years tended 
this church and watched her grow. We of to-day reap the 
fruits of their labor and perseverance. 

Those early days were not without trial and discourage- 
ment. They were marked with struggle and it is well that 
they were, for the church which knows no struggle knows 
no strength. 

Sometimes we put it the other way and we think of that 
church as strong which seemingly has smooth sailing, but 
somewhere there must have been struggle else there could 
be no strength. 

Yes, the pioneers in this parish had their difficulties and 
their trials, their problems and their losses. Like men of 
old they too walked through the wilderness but they didn't 
walk alone. 

What was it which guided them and cheered them, which 
sustained them and helped them on? Nothing more nor 
less than the presence of Almighty God, that influence with 
which no church is ever a failure and without which no 
church can succeed. That explains the influence and 
power of this church whose birthday we celebrate to-day. 

Because of His presence the First Church of Newton has 



124 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

been a great spiritual force. She has been not only an 
active church but a working church, a force pump not a 
sponge. She has been, too, a living church, a religious or 
praying church, communicating power to all who have wor- 
shiped here in sincerity and truth. 

Above all she has been a ministering church, ministering 
faithfully to the spiritual needs of one generation after 
another. Surely these two hundred and fifty years have 
told a wonderful story. 

The achievements of the past are secure. The prosperity 
of the present we hold with firm hands. And the promise 
of the future comes to us with no uncertain sound. 

The story of the next fifty years will be written by the 
younger men and women who are here to-day. My con- 
cluding word is to them. May it be said of each one of you 
who are the loyal sons and daughters of worthy sires, in that 
day when your names will be but a memory, that you faith- 
fully administered the trust which you received from your 
fathers and honestly did your part in your day and genera- 
tion toward making the old First Church of Newton not 
only prosperous but truly great. 



Introducing Rev. Raymond Calkins, D.D., the pastor of 
the First Church in Cambridge (Congregational), the chair- 
man said: 

"Although this old First Church of Newton has reached 
its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, it is not by any 
means an orphan. The mother still resides at the old 
home in Cambridge and has all the marks of the vigor, 
strength and wisdom of her youth, matured and deepened 
and enlarged. It gives me great gratification to present to 
you Dr. Calkins, pastor of the old First Church of Cam- 
bridge, the mother church." 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 1 25 

ADDRESS BY REV. RAYMOND CALKINS, D.D. 

It is a great thing to be the pastor of a church which has a 
daughter two hundred and fifty years old. And it is a high 
honor which falls to me to bring greetings to-day from the 
mother church to its first offspring which celebrates such an 
anniversary. 

Our imaginations are taxed to the limit when we try to 
frame a true picture of the conditions as they existed when 
this parish was first organized, during the ministry of the 
Rev, Jonathan Mitchel, the second minister of the Cam- 
bridge Church. At that time there were living in Cam- 
bridge one hundred and thirty-five taxable persons. There 
were about ninety houses, two hundred and eight cows, 
one hundred and thirty-one oxen and twenty horses. The 
total property valuation was something less than $50,000. 
And a path through the wilderness led from the spot from 
which I came to the place where I stand to-day. And if 
there is no reason to wonder that the people living here 
wanted to have a church of their own, there is also no 
reason to wonder if, when the petition was first presented, 
the town thought that it would be a disaster to divide a 
parish no larger than the Cambridge parish was at that 
time. 

But in 1660, after the continued and extreme urgency of 
the people dwelling in these regions, the town of Cam- 
bridge voted "that the remote inhabitants on the South 
Side of the River should be annually abated one-half of their 
proportion to the salary of the minister's allowance, during 
the time that they were provided of an able minister accord- 
ing to law"; and, two years later, the town voted that they 
should be released from all ministerial charges on condition 
that they should "give good security to the town for the 
payment of twenty pounds per annum forever to the use of 
the other part of the town belonging to the old meeting- 
house on the north side of the River." Unfortunately for 
us this proposition was not agreed to by the people living 
here. And a simple calculation will show you that down to 



126 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

the present time that has meant a loss of $25,000 to the old 
meeting-house which I represent. 

But I can say without hesitation that the people of the 
old meeting-house have magnanimously risen above any 
heart-burnings that they may have felt when a proposition 
which seemed so fair and reasonable was not accepted by 
you ; and that on the occasion of your anniversary have only 
a sense of pride that this church was so largely composed at 
its beginning of a colony from Cambridge. I bring you 
greetings from the old mother church. We want this 
anniversary of yours to renew the old memories, the old 
allegiance, the old bond of union. We have everything in 
common. We began together and together down through 
the generations the work has gone on. If our first minister 
was a missionary, come from England, your first minister 
was a son of the Apostle Eliot. If the Cambridge Church 
was the first to begin missionary history in New England, 
yours was the first to continue it. If our church has had 
a wonderful succession of long and able ministries, your 
church has one that can equal it. The average length of 
ministry in both churches is twenty-five years, and it is a 
record of which we have both a right to be proud. Let us 
renew our loyalty to our Master, to the old gospel to which 
our heroic forbears were so faithful, and to each other. 

And the mother church is also about to celebrate an im- 
portant event in her history, and she asks you to share in it. 

There died last August, Dr. Alexander McKenzie, the 
pastor-emeritus of the First Church in Cambridge, who, 
for forty-seven years, had a ministry that stands second in 
length, and second to none in its influence, among the 
eleven pastorates which, since 1636, the church has known. 
Had he lived, and had be been able, it would have been he, 
and not I, who would have brought you greetings to-day. 
A service commemorating his life and labors will be held 
on Sunday afternoon, November 15. Come and share that 
service with us as we with deepest affection and greatest 
joy, share this service with you. So our hearts will grow 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 12/ 

together, and all shall realize anew the meaning of the old 
hymn: 

"Before our Father's throne we pour our mutual prayers; 
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares." 



The First Baptist Church of Newton was organized in 
1780, the second church organization formed in the com- 
munity. As the church was without a minister, President 
George E. Horr, D.D., of the Newton Theological Insti- 
tution, was asked to bring the greetings of the Baptist 
brethren. The chairman introduced him in the following 
words : 

"One of the pleasantest features of the church life of this 
village is the relation that exists between the churches of 
the various communions. The First Church of Newton 
extends its hearty greetings to the First Baptist Church of 
Newton and welcomes, as its speaker of the day. Dr. Horr, 
president of the Baptist Theological Seminary, of our 
village." 

ADDRESS BY REV. GEORGE E. HORR, D.D. 

The Rev. Dr. Codman in his sermon at the funeral of Dr. 
Homer said of him: "He lived on terms of Christian inti- 
macy and fellowship with Mr. Grafton, the Baptist minister 
of this place; he took the liveliest interest in the prosperity 
of the Theological Institution on the hill, and maintained 
a fraternal and paternal intimacy with its officers and 
students. His library was always at their service for use 
and reference." 

Whatever slight resentment there may have been a hun- 
dred and thirty-four years ago at the coming of a church of 
another denomination into this community, the friendship 
of Dr. Homer and Father Grafton has been thoroughly 
typical of the relationship of the two churches. They have 
been more than friendly. They have been to one another 
as older and younger sisters, and there has hardly been an. 



128 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

enterprise of any sort for the well-being of this community 
which has not enlisted the hearty support of the member- 
ship of both churches. 

To-day, as I speak on behalf of the Baptist Church in this 
place, it is not to utter some words of formal felicitation 
upon this anniversary, but to express a sincere admiration 
and appreciation of the career of this church. This senti- 
ment is based on clear and sound reasons. 

We appreciate thoroughly the practical solution the his- 
tory of this church affords of the problem of the relation of 
church and state. When this church was founded there was 
a union of church and state in Massachusetts as complete 
and absolute as that which obtained in the mother country. 
It was, in part, through the influence of the Baptists, with 
their doctrine of the separation of church and state, that 
this condition of things was changed, but you did not be- 
lieve that because the legal union of church and state was 
dissolved that Christian men were relieved from the respon- 
sibility of leavening the state with Christian principles. 
The record of the men of this church in the history of the 
town, in the war of the Revolution, in the Civil War, in the 
Massachusetts legislature, on the bench, and in Congress 
shows conclusively how large and effective the influence of a 
Christian congregation upon civic and national life may be. 
Time and again the sermon preached in this pulpit has been 
re-preached in the business office, on the exchange, in the 
council, and in the legislature. 

Another ground of our appreciation is the way this church 
has ministered to the youth of this community. Beyond 
almost any church with which I am familiar it has success- 
fully held large groups of young men and women to the 
services of the sanctuary and to the Christian life. I do 
not know that there is any secret about the way in which 
this has been accomplished except the open secret of sym- 
pathy with the young and vital interest in their welfare, and 
the happy utilization of social forces in the service of the 
reHgious life. 

Still further, this church always elicits the admiration of 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 1 29 

its younger sister because of the beauty and strength of the 
pastoral relation as exemplified love. The bare record tells 
the story, ten pastors in two hundred and fifty years. As 
the memorial volume published twenty-five years ago 
frankly shows, this has not always been because your pastors 
have been uniformly great or continuously acceptable to all 
the congregation, but it has been because both pastors and 
people have loved one another, and because both realized 
the sanctity of the relationship and how the influence of the 
church in the community accelerates and deepens with 
every added year of a faithful minister's work. 

The present outlook certainly indicates that the year 
1914 wall be as momentous a date in human history as 1453, 
or 1492, or 1517. Probably its significance will surpass any 
of these years. We are confronting a new age. This anni- 
versary stands upon its threshold, but whatever changes 
that new age may bring we are confident that the forces 
that have made this church what it is will be needed more 
than ever in advancing the interests of the Kingdom of God. 



Services had been held since 1 760 in the westerly portion 
of the town of Newton which was set off as an independent 
parish by an act of the General Court in October, 1778, 
and the Second or West Parish Church was organized in 
1 78 1. The chairman introduced Rev. J. Edgar Park, the 
minister of the Second Church, as one bringing "to the 
mother the greetings of the eldest child." 

ADDRESS BY REV. J. EDGAR PARK. 

One hundred and fifty-four years ago some of the mem- 
bers of this parish, not anticipating the invention of the 
automobile, felt that they lived too far from the church 
and alleged apparently that they were so tired when they 
got here that they could not enjoy the sermon. These 
lazy parishioners lived in that part of the town called, in 
popular parlancfe, the "wilderness," diversely named now 
9 



130 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

West Newton, Nonantum, Newtonville, Auburndale, Lower 
Falls, Waban, and half of the present city of Waltham. 
The spirit of revolt became so rampant among these long- 
distance parishioners that they actually went to work and, 
without the permission of this church, engaged a theologi- 
cal student as school teacher in West Newton with the 
understanding that he also preach or read a sermon on 
Sunday in the school-house. Not content with this they 
proceeded four years later to erect a church building in 
West Newton and petitioned the stubbornly resisting 
mother church, year after year but entirely vainly, for 
some share in the town tax, for the support of public wor- 
ship. Twice did the disputes between this First Church 
and the Second Church come into the courts. Once it 
was about the parish wood lot about which there had been 
bickerings for years. I find one vote passed that the trees 
are to be "spotted," those which can be cut down for use 
in the first parish to be marked by one mark, the second 
parish trees by another; another time the vote is passed that 
two-thirds of the wood cut that year is for the Rev. Jonathan 
Homer's fire and one-third for the Rev. William Green- 
ough's fire. 

Another interesting question which came up in those 
early years was as to whether the Second Church should 
be allowed to have a share in any of the communion "fur- 
niture," which ended, we are told, "after conversations'^ 
by the sending over to West Newton of four pewter tank- 
ards and one pewter dish. 

How far gone by are all these disputes about wood lots 
and "conversations" about communion furniture can be 
seen by the fact that a few months ago the minister of 
the First Church took an automobile and came over to 
the Second Church immediately after his own morning 
service and, finding our people still at church (for the 
people at the West side of the city are slower of apprehen- 
sion and need longer instruction than those here), the 
minister of the First Church came into our house of worship 
and, going up into the pulpit, shook hands with the minister 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP I3I 

of the Second Church before all the people and proceeded 
to address them upon the subject of incorporation and free 
pews. 

The very year that celebrates the two hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of your own founding celebrates also the one 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the laying of the founda- 
tion stone of our original church in West Newton. And we 
had hoped to do our mother honor by laying upon that 
anniversary the foundation stone of a new and beautiful 
church had not the tragedy of Europe made a postpone- 
ment of a few months seem wise. Since we left our mother's 
house here we, in the Second Church, have contributed of 
our members to found eleven new churches in the parish 
which once was that of the Second Church alone. 

To-day, as our mother gathers her children and her 
grandchildren around her knees, we point with pride to 
the fact that there is not one of the children of our family 
in the city that has fallen by the way; we are all lusty, 
hearty, youthful, filled with forward-looking vigor, already 
counting on the fun and the feast at our mother's three 
hundredth birthday. 

We are sure that our mother's word to us to-day is this: 
"Little children, love one another!" And so we try to do; 
in every village in this fair city harmony reigns between 
the children of different branches of your family. All 
of your immediate family. Second, Eliot, Auburndale, 
North, Newtonville, Highlands, and little baby Waban; 
all of us rejoice in your long years of noble service to our 
city and our land, in your beautiful church edifice, in the 
long and notable ministry of your present beloved minister, 
and in the prospects that open up before you of coming 
years of joyful usefulness in our beautiful city. 



Since the organization of the Second Church, six more 
Congregational churches have been formed within the 
city of Newton, to all of which the First Church has con- 
tributed members, the youngest of these being the Union 



132 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

Church of Waban. The pastor of Union Church, Rev. 
Charles H. Cutler, D.D., was introduced by the chairman 
as follows: 

"This old First Church is not only the daughter of a 
church still living and flourishing, but it is the sister of 
churches, some of whom are still in the days of their youth. 
The youngest sister is represented to-day by Dr. Cutler 
of the Union Church at Waban." 



ADDRESS BY REV. CHARLES H. CUTLER, D.D. 

A little girl, being asked how old her baby brother was, 
replied with some indignation: "He is not old at all — he 
is almost new." I bring to you to-day the greetings and 
congratulations of a church that is not old at all — but is 
almost new; yet old enough to know how much she was in- 
debted in her infancy to the motherly interest of this church, 
and never too old, I trust, to forget it. 

It is the distinction of many an humble place that it is 
the birthplace of a great man. Multitudes visit Ayr, 
Eisleben, Stratford, to see the birthplace of Burns, Luther, 
or Shakespere. The glory of many an ancient city is the 
names of her sons forever associated with it, as Edinborough 
is associated with the name of Walter Scott, or Florence with 
Dante and Savonarola. The old school and university 
glories not so much in storied halls as in her sons who, 
owning her as their intellectual and spiritual mother, have 
done distinguished service in the world. Not so long ago 
it could have been said of a certain small college down in 
Maine, that the Chief Justice of the United States, the 
President of the Senate and Acting Vice-President, the 
Speaker of the National House of Representatives, and the 
Chief Justice of the Commonwealth, were at one and the 
same time counted among her sons. 

So, I think, of any ancient church, nothing finer can be 
said than that she is the mother and maker of men. Were 
it within our power to summon, on this significant occasion, 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP I33 

all the men and women who, during the more than eight 
generations in the life of this church, received here their 
first and durable religious impressions, their formative 
ideals, their spiritual birth-right, and then went out into 
all the earth to render distinguished service in the kingdom 
of God, what an august assembly this would be! And if 
we were to gather here also, as we ought, all the unnamed, 
unremembered, unhonored, unnumbered anonymous saints 
upon the rolls of this church — saints of the fireside and the 
marketplace — the salt of the earth, and the lights of the 
world in their several generations, what a noble company 
that, too, would be! 

The Church of God is the Mother of Men. 

"Glorious things are spoken of thee, 
O city of God ! 
Yea, of Zion it shall be said, 
This one and that one was born in her. 
Jehovah shall count, when He writeth up the peoples 
This one was born there." 



The Third Church of Boston, better known as the Old 
South, was organized a few years later than the First Church 
of Newton, and it was fitting that one of the ministers of that 
famous church should bring the greetings of the Boston 
churches on this occasion. The chairman introduced Rev. 
Willis H. Butler as follows: 

"Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon, pastor of the Old South 
Church of Boston was to be here and speak for the churches 
of Boston. While the Old South Church stands for age and 
wisdom, it is a younger sister compared to this old church 
of Newton as it has yet to celebrate its two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary. Dr. Gordon is prevented from being 
present, and, while we regret his absence, we are all gratified 
to welcome in his place Rev. Dr. Butler, the associate pastor 
with Dr. Gordon of the Old South Church." 



134 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

ADDRESS BY REV. WILLIS H. BUTLER 

I am frequently impressed with the amount of ignorance 
which many CongregationaUsts manifest in regard to the 
history and principles of their order. Most Baptists can 
tell you in no uncertain tone the distinctive characteristics 
of their polity. The average Methodist has a reason, and 
a very good one it is, for the faith which he holds. The 
Presbyterian, though he does not always know why he is 
what he is, nevertheless knows that he is. All Episcopalians, 
without any argument, assume the superiority and the 
finality of their form of organization. But when the Con- 
gregationalist's turn comes, he has little or nothing to say. 
He somehow leaves the impression that he is a little of 
everything and not much of anything, shamefully forgetful 
or inexcusably ignorant of what the Puritan and the Pilgrim 
stand for in English and American history. It is sometimes 
encouraging to find out that one has just as much right to 
glory as his next door neighbor has, and, although it may 
not be expedient, I must needs glory a little this afternoon. 

1. It is not until we reach Apostolic times that we hear 
much about the church. And it is worth noting that the 
recent studies of a distinguished English scholar show that 
the underlying principles of the churches, which the Apos- 
tles established in various parts of the Roman world, were 
the identical principles of Congregationalism, i. e., the inde- 
pendence of the local church and the fellowship of the 
churches. "Each Church governed itself, but they united 
in counsel concerning matters of common interest." I 
am not a Congregationalist merely because the earliest 
Christian church we know anything about bore a striking 
resemblance to our form of organization, but if one likes to 
be historic it is well to know that we may glory in the early 
date of our origin, if we care to do so. 

2. There is real cause for glorying in the fact that our 
order corresponds very closely to the type of government 
for which the New England town has become justly famous, 
an ideal democracy. In a Congregational church the people 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 1 35 

rule. There is no authority outside the individual church 
which is composed of men and women, every one of whom 
has equal rights. Well may we guard against anything 
which threatens this independence; it is the distinctive 
characteristic of our order, one which we have inherited 
from those sturdy men of England who suffered exile in 
Holland and endured privation in Plymouth in order that 
they might be free to worship God according to the dictates 
of conscience. They established a free self-governing com- 
munity, and they built their church on the same broad foun- 
dation, religious liberty being the chief corner stone. We 
surely may be pardoned for priding ourselves upon the 
democratic nature of our polity. 

3. Another cause for glorying is found in the regard which 
our denomination has always paid to education. The Pil- 
grim fathers insisted upon having an educated ministry. 
With this end in view they founded Harvard College, six 
years after Boston was settled, as a school for the training 
of ministers of the gospel. Yale, Dartmouth, Williams, 
Amherst, Bowdoin, Smith, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke 
Colleges, all owe their origin to the consecrated men and 
women who believed in a Christian education. As soon as 
the West was settled schools and academies were planted at 
considerable sacrifice on the part of emigrants from New 
England who wished their children to have the advantages 
which their parents had enjoyed. Congregationalists have 
expended in educational work in the South more money 
than all other denominations combined. From the free 
common schools up to the theological seminaries the educa- 
tion which the leaders of our order have provided has been 
a conspicuous feature of our denominational history. 

4. Once more, Congregationalists have alvv^ays been dis- 
tinguished for their missionary activity. It is hardly neces- 
sary to remind the members of the First Church in Newton 
that the first Foreign Missionary Society in this country 
was organized by Congregationalists. For the Negroes and 
the Indians in our own country we have always felt a pecu- 
liar responsibility and we have conscientiously sent highly 



136 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

trained men and women to lift the members of these back- 
ward races to higher levels of life. 

I have gloried enough. And the reason for my speaking 
in this somewhat unusual strain is simply to remind you 
that the denomination with which you are affiliated is 
worthy of your heartiest loyalty. We have an honorable 
record of noble service and the question which faces us on 
an occasion like this is, Are we going to live up to that record 
or are we going to fall back upon it, pride ourselves upon our 
past, but do nothing in the present or for the future? 



The pastoral service of Rev. Edward T. Sullivan, rector 
of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, antedates that of 
any other minister in the city. His church is across the 
street from the meeting-house of the First Church in Newton, 
and the two parishes have been for many years in intimate 
and friendly relations. It was appropriate, therefore, that 
he should be the spokesman of the churches of the city 
in bringing their greetings and congratulations on this 
happy occasion. He was thus introduced by the chairman: 

"The last speaker of the afternoon represents the church 
nearest to our door and the youngest of all the churches in 
our Newton Centre group. I have the honor to present 
Rev. Mr. Sullivan, rector of the Episcopal Church, our 
nearest neighbor and our closest friend." 



ADDRESS BY REV. EDWARD T. SULLIVAN 

It is my pleasant privilege to tell how this church is re- 
garded by the other churches in this village, and to give 
expression to their felicitations and good will. 

When the corner-stone of this new building was laid I 
applied to this church the signification of that symbolic 
figure of the old man in the Book of Revelation. It is 
said of him that "His head and his hair were white like 
wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as flames of fire." 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP I37 

The white hair is the symbol of venerable age, maturity, 
experience and wisdom. The flaming eyes represent the 
unquenched fires and the forces of early manhood. The 
whole figure stands for unimpaired vigor, unabated strength, 
age-long and age-lasting power. It is the symbol of im- 
mortal youth. 

That, it seemed to me, was what this church was and is in 
itself. But just now I want to take up another parable to 
express what this church is to us of the other churches here 
in this village. And the symbol of that, I think, is the de- 
scription of the parson in Goldsmith's poem, "The Deserted 
Village." It is said that "he allured to brighter worlds, 
and led the way." If among the Letters to the Churches 
in the Book of Revelation there was one to the venerable 
First Church of Newton, that letter we believe, would say 
of it, "it allured to brighter worlds — and led the way." 

The First Church was in exclusive possession of this field 
for more than a century; and you would naturally expect 
that the monopoly habit would have become fixed ; and that 
it would look with disfavor upon other churches entering 
in. I know little of the ancient ecclesiastical history of this 
town ; but I do know that history for the past twenty-three 
years. And I can testify, as representing the youngest, 
and latest — and perhaps the last church in this village — 
the child of this town's old age, the Benjamin of this 
family of churches — I can testify that the arms of the First 
Church were extended to us in cordial welcome and in 
hearty good will. Indeed, if we are the Benjamin among 
the brethren here, this church acted the part of Judah, who, 
you will remember, solemnly said to his father Jacob: "I 
will be surety for the lad." 

What I say of this church may be said of the other churches 
here also, for the spirit of fellowship and brotherly love 
between the Christian communions exists in this town to 
such a degree as to give Newton Centre a reputation, and 
to be the wonder of strangers coming here. From the 
point of view of church relationship the name of this village 
is Utopia, a place which people often dreamed of, and long 



138 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

hoped for, but never expected really to see. And this old 
church has had its large part in creating that atmosphere 
and in spreading that spirit. It allured us to the higher 
things — and led the way. 

And this welcome and spirit were the more noteworthy 
because our dear, good friend Father Wholey was already 
beginning a Roman Catholic Church here, and that might 
have been thought sufftcient, and that an Episcopal Church 
in addition was superfluous; for there used to be a good 
many people in the world who agreed with Happy Hawkins 
in believing that "Episcopalians are just Roman Catholics 
gone Republican." 

This church has been a good neighbor to all the churches, 
and has played the Good Samaritan to the others as it did 
to ours. In saying that I do not mean that we needed the 
ministrations of the Good Samaritan in the sense that we 
had fallen among thieves. There was a quaint old writer 
who doubtless had bitter memories of ecclesiastical oppres- 
sion, for in commenting on this parable he said that the 
Levite came and looked on him, but he too passed by on 
the other side "for he saw that the man had been robbed 
already." This church has been the Good Samaritan to 
us in the symbolic rather than in the literal meaning. 

To admire is to wish to imitate. The exigencies of this 
occasion do not permit me to elucidate, and scarcely to 
enumerate, those things which the churches of this village 
so admire in this church that they would wish to imitate 
them. The splendid initiative of its men, and the fine 
leadership of its women. These women, I take it, are 
differently situated from the wives of the Puritans who 
founded this church two hundred and fifty years ago. It 
has been said that the women of those days had to put up 
with not only the hardships which the men endured, but 
that they had to put up with the men as well. But prob- 
ably it was a woman who said that. And it may have been 
a woman also who, having grown weary of hearing too much 
praise bestowed upon the Puritan men and too little upon 
the Puritan women, said that instead of the Pilgrims land- 



SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 1 39 

ing on Pl>Tnouth Rock, it would have been better if 
Plymouth Rock had landed on the Pilgrims. 

We admire the able leadership of your men and women in 
things social, civic and spiritual; your great Bible school — 
the envy and despair of us all; the efficient administration 
of your benevolences; your fine missionary spirit, and the 
competent organization of your missionary work. But I 
must not linger over these, for in the two or three minutes 
remaining to me I want to say one other thing. 

In things spiritual, one thousand years are as one day; 
and this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, therefore, 
marks but the third hour of your church's day — its early 
forenoon — the period of its inextinguishable youth. 

In this long history it has had a line of able, illustrious, 
and godly pastors. But what I want to say is this, that 
never was there a more virile, convincing and spiritual 
gospel preached from this pulpit than there is to-day by 
your present minister. It subtracts nothing from the 
praise of the good men who have gone before to say that 
their mantle has fallen upon ample shoulders; and that the 
office of pastor and preacher, which they so nobly illustrated 
and adorned, maintains its high distinction and spiritual 
supremacy in the incumbent of to-day. 

It is fitting that / should say this because Mr. Noyes, 
your pastor, and I have been neighbors here for just twenty 
years. You will agree with me that what our neighbors 
say of us has great significance. And Mr. Noyes has met 
the most searching of all tests, the test of neighborliness and 
the test of time. 

If you ask what sort of man he is this great church is 
the answer. When it falls to some one to write the history 
of his ministry here, I am sure that the historian will say 
of Mr. Noyes what I have been saying of his church — that 
"he allured to brighter worlds, and led the way." 

And so we citizens of Newton Centre, of every church — 
to quote Mr. Noyes' own phrase on another occasion — "we 
take off our hats to-day" to the First Church, and to its 
minister! 



140 SERVICE OF FELLOWSHIP 

After the addresses of the afternoon, Mr. Noyes read a 
number of letters, and the service closed with the singing 
of "America." The familiar words were written by Rev. 
S. F. Smith, D.D., whose home for many years was in 
Newton Centre. 

At the close of the service, a fifteen-minute organ recital 
was given by Mr. D. Ralph Maclean, organist of the church, 
who played the Suite Gothique of Boellmann. 



THE BANQUET 

MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1914. 




FIFTH MEETING HOUSE. 1847-1903 



THE BANQUET 



THE tables were spread in the dining room and the 
assembly room of the Chapel, and the Parish House 
of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, across Homer 
Street, was also utilized, through the courtesy of that parish. 
Altogether, five hundred and thirty guests were comfort- 
ably provided for. The tables in the Chapel were removed 
and all the company gathered there for the after-dinner 
speaking. Mr. William H. Rice, chairman of the General 
Committee of Arrangements for the anniversary presided, 
and introduced Mr. Frank H. Stewart as toastmaster. Mr. 
Rice spoke as follows: 

MR. WILLIAM H. RICE, CHAIRMAN OF GENERAL 
COMMITTEE 

It is a great pleasure to your committee to welcome so 
many of our old friends to the two hundred and fiftieth 
birthday of this old First Church, and I am sure that had the 
ovens been large enough, your committee would have baked 
a birthday cake and had two hundred and fifty candles 
burning on it. Two hundred and fifty years is a long time, 
but for all of that two of our members have spent one 
third of that time in this village, and for over seventy years 
of that time have been members of this church. Mr. 
Henry Paul and Mr. George F. Stone, our oldest mem- 
bers in point of service, joined this church August 6, 1843, 
seventy-one years ago; Mrs. Hannah W. Jackson was re- 
ceived one year later in July of 1844. Mr. Paul and Mrs. 
Jackson have lived their entire lives in this village, but 
Mr. George Stone has for the last few years spent his life 
in California. It is greatly to be regretted that all of these 
oldest members could not have been here to-night. What 
a fund of interesting reminiscences they would bring to us 



144 THE BANQUET 

of the happenings in this village over two thirds of a 
century ago! 

I wish at this time to thank our good friends of the 
Episcopal Church for the use of the Parish House for our 
guests to-night. This is only another evidence of the warm 
feeling existing between us, and it is hoped that we can at 
some future time assist them in some way. They can rest 
assured that their position has been greatly appreciated by 
the committee. 

Your committee have received a number of interesting 
letters from former members who have moved to great 
distances, and it would hardly be fair to select a few to 
read, but there is one from the Pilgrim Congregational 
Church in Duluth, Minnesota, which I am sure will in- 
terest all of the people here, especially those who were here 
twenty years and more ago. 

Duluth, Minn., Oct. 27, 1914. 
To THE First Church in Newton, 
Newton Centre, Mass. 

Greeting: Pilgrim Congregational Church of Duluth, Minnesota, sends 
congratulations and felicitations on the occasion of the celebration of 
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the 
First Church in Newton. 

Thirty-one years ago there came to us from Yale Divinity School a 
young graduate whom we had called to be our pastor. He proved to 
be not only a pastor but an organizer and leader. Under his wise ad- 
ministration our church grew and prospered. 

After eleven years, we, with regret, surrendered him to New England, 
and to you, and for twenty years you have enjoyed his ministry. 

There are many here who still think of Rev. Edward MacArthur 
Noyes as in a manner belonging to us. We like to believe that, through 
his labors in the upbuilding of Pilgrim Church in its earlier days, we 
had a share in his development and that here he became fitted for the 
larger work to which you invited him. 

Our congratulations on this happy occasion are not, therefore, 
prompted by any ordinary feelings of friendliness and good will, but 
by a profounder interest and affectionate regard, which make us bold 
to claim the privilege of being glad with you while you celebrate the 
consummation of two and a half centuries of history as a church of 
Christ. 

Pilgrim Congregational Church of Duluth, 

By its Pastor and Committee. 



THE BANQUET I 45 

We have now reached a course in our dinner which the 
cook did not prepare, and we have, like good, Httle children, 
kept the best until last, and I take great pleasure now in 
introducing to you the chairman of the Prudential Com- 
mittee, Mr. Frank H. Stewart, the toastmaster. 



REMARKS OF FRANK H. STEWART, ESQ., TOAST- 
MASTER 

When I was invited to assist on this auspicious occasion, 
I had many misgivings as to my ability to undertake the 
task. These misgivings, I afterwards found, were shared 
by my small daughter of nine years. Hearing of my selec- 
tion, she went in great excitement to her mother and 
said: "Why, Mother, Daddy isn't any good as a toast- 
master; he doesn't know how to make toast — he'll burn it." 

I think the founders of this church would be equally sur- 
prised to find a toastmaster among its officers, especially one 
of my name and lineage. But their surprise would be mild 
compared with that of Bishop Lawrence when he picks up 
his paper at breakfast to-morrow morning and reads that 

"Yesterday about one hundred and fifty men and women 
left the Congregational Church in Newton Centre in a 
body, and were received into Trinity Episcopal Church in 
that village. The right hand of fellowship was given them 
by the Rev. Edward T. Sullivan, the Rector." 

I am certain that the good Bishop will wonder why in 
the world some Congregationalist did not put in a word 
to stop such an exodus, — and he will at once recall that story 
of Dr. Barton's experience with a colored carriage driver 
in Washington. 

This driver was standing out in front of the Willard 
Hotel one morning, when a gentleman rushed out of the 
hotel and asked: 

"Uncle, have you got a good horse?" 

The driver replied : 

"Yes, sir; yes, indeed, sir. I've got a good horse; Fve 
got a cavalry horse." 

10 



146 THE BANQUET 

" Can you get me to the Union Station in fifteen minutes?" 

"No, sir; no, sir. I can't get you to the Union Station 
in fifteen minutes, but I can get you there in twenty min- 
utes, sir." 

" Did you say that was a cavalry horse?" 

"Yes, sir; yes, sir. He's a cavalry horse." 

"Well, jump in and let me drive." 

Whereupon they got in, the gentleman took the reins, 
and, to the darkey's amazement, gathering them up, called, 
"Squadron, attention!" The horse pricked up his ears. 
Then the gentleman called out, "Squadron, charge!" The 
horse put back his ears and galloped down Pennsylvania 
Avenue, the darkey holding on to the seat for dear life. 
When they approached the Union Station and came oppo- 
site the passenger's entrance, the gentleman called out, 
"Squadron, halt!" The horse settled back on his haunches, 
and with his four legs sprawling, slid up to the curb and 
came to a dead stop. The passenger alighted, paid the 
chuckling driver, and rushed off. 

The next day, Dr. Barton came out of the Willard Hotel 
and accosted the same driver, saying: 

"Uncle, I am in a hurry to get a train to New York. 
Can you get me to the Union Station in twenty min- 
utes?" 

"Yes, sir; yes, indeed sir. I've got a good cavalry horse 
here, sir. I can get you there in fifteen minutes, sir." 

"All right," said the Doctor, "hurry along," and he 
jumped in. 

To the Doctor's astonishment, the driver at once called 
out, "Squadron, attention!" And then, "Squadron, 
charge!" Whereupon the horse started down the avenue on 
the gallop, much to the Doctor's dismay. Finally, to his 
great surprise and horror, the horse went galloping by the 
station. The Doctor called out to the driver, "Here, 
stop! stop! I want to get out." The driver turned around 
in his seat, and with startled countenance said, "Mister, 
you-all will have to jump. I've clean forgot the right word 
to say; I can't stop him." 



THE BANQUET I 47 

Speaking seriously, however, this courtesy of our Epis- 
copal friends (to which Mr. Rice has referred), in giving the 
use of their Parish House for some of our supper guests, 
is fresh evidence of the close and cordial fellowship existing 
between the churches of this village. And this marks in a 
striking manner what these two hundred and fifty years 
have done for the village and the Commonwealth in re- 
ligious matters, and gives the members of this church all 
the greater pleasure in having with us to-night so many 
friends from the other churches. 

The only way the founders of this church could get the 
other denominations to come to it two hundred and fifty 
years ago, was by invoking the act of the legislature, which 
made their attendance compulsory and fined them for ab- 
sence, and also by having the freeman's right to vote re- 
stricted to members of the Puritan Church ! It was not the 
church and state, then. The church was the state! 

I wonder how many here present realize that it was not 
until later in the summer of the year this church was es- 
tablished, that the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts 
was established; and that, in the autumn of that same year, 
the first performance of the Episcopal service took place 
in Boston. 

At that time, these were two alarming inroads on ecclesi- 
astical uniformity. But to-night, we are glad to welcome 
our friends of these several denominations into a fellowship 
that is both broad and sincere; and we believe that, if the 
founders of this church could return and voice their feelings, 
they would strive to outdo us in making all our friends 
doubly welcome to a common brotherhood and a common 
table. The heritage which we now hold, belongs, not alone 
to the members of this church and parish, but to this entire 
community. We fervently invite you to share it with us, 
and to help us hold and use it worthily. 

The founders of this state, this community and this 
church, sprang from the common people, and were mighty 
men. Here, on this continent, and in this Commonwealth, 
they set up a government which they meant to be a theoc- 



148 THE BANQUET 

racy, but which in the providence of God, became the 
greatest democracy the world has ever known, and whose 
beneficent influence in these troublous days offers suffering 
humanity its greatest earthly hope and solace. 

They founded the public school, which is the keystone of 
our liberty. And they left to us a strong, religious nature, 
which, though obscured ofttimes by the complexities of our 
modern life and its seeming shallowness and sham, yet, I 
venture to assert, deep down in our national and individual 
life controls our sober thought and directs our highest 
resolves. 

Despite the tragedy now being enacted in Europe, despite 
the fears of many good people, and despite the scoffs of the 
pessimist, the world grows better as the world grows old. 
And I believe that, in our day and generation, we Americans 
are truly religious, and hold to the fundamental principles 
of the Puritans, — even though we profess our religion with 
more tolerance, and even at times seem careless of its safety 
and forgetful of its teachings. For the careful observer 
will find that, like the Puritans, we still are actuated in 
all our ways by a belief in God, a reverence for law, a love 
of liberty, and that also, like them, we pursue our destiny 
with courage, and a serene and lofty hope. 

What the Puritans established in this community, their 
sons have preserved. And now, in the fulness of time, this 
heritage has been transmitted and entrusted to us, though 
not all of their blood, yet holding the faith they held, to 
serve our Maker and our country and our fellowmen, ac- 
cording to our Hghts. Truly, we of this generation, form 
a link "that binds all ages past with all that are to be." 

And on this memorable occasion, and in this ancient 
church, all here present must, indeed, feel that 

"the place 
Where shining souls have passed imbibes a grace 

Beyond mere earth; . . . some sweetness of their fames 
Leaves in the soil its unextinguished trace. 

That penetrates our lives, and heightens them, or shames." 



THE BANQUET I49 

THE TOASTM ASTER 

In the year 1636 two great institutions were established 
in Cambridge. One was the First Parish Church of Christ, 
the other, Harvard College. Of the former this church is 
an offspring and that college furnished its first five pastors 
who directed its course for one hundred seventy-five years. 
Much of our spirit and a great deal of our culture we claim 
from both these sources. It is a very great pleasure, 
therefore, to have with us this evening the present pastor 
of the church at Cambridge, the Rev. Samuel M. Crothers, 
and he will speak to us on "The Liberty of Prophesying." 
I have great pleasure in introducing to you Dr. Crothers of 
Cambridge. 

RESPONSE BY REV. SAMUEL M. CROTHERS, D.D. 

I feel that I ought not simply to bring the greetings of 
the First Church in Cambridge, but also of Minnesota, 
because when I heard those words from Duluth I remem- 
bered that it was just twenty years since I left St. Paul for 
Cambridge. That was a great year for Minnesota. I 
suppose neither of us felt in that year that we were going 
to survive and be in as good shape twenty years after. I 
hope that there are people in St. Paul who remember me 
also as having belonged to Minnesota at that time. 

I also am glad to speak for one part of the First Church 
in Cambridge. Cambridge used to pride itself on its 
grammatical correctness and people, doubtless before the 
influx of Minnesota into this region, were interested in 
such questions as to whether we should say " the two Firsts" 
or "the first two" or something of that kind, but a few 
years ago in Cambridge in an excess of good feeling we 
threw grammatical propriety altogether to the winds in 
the interest of good feeling. I have been told that for a 
generation or two there had been a debate as to which 
was the first church in Cambridge. About the time I 
came there we had a meeting and we decided that there 



150 THE BANQUET 

were two first churches in Cambridge, and two there have 
been ever since, and if anybody objects to the idea that 
"two firsts" is not correct, it is correct enough for us over 
there, because we both of us, the two churches that have 
distinctly sprung from that First Church of Christ in 
Cambridge, cherish equally the great memory, and the 
past at least for us both is secure. It is characteristic of 
this region that no name seems to be particularly inaccurate. 
We have the New Old South Church and such names 
which perplex a stranger, and so it happens that in regard 
to this First Church of Christ in Cambridge it wasn't the 
first Church of Christ in Cambridge because Thomas 
Hooker of blessed memory had already been preaching 
there. For some reason or another he went to Hartford 
and took his church with him, but nobody to this day 
knows how much of Thomas Hooker's influence has been 
left in Cambridge. 

I think as I look at you, however, how degenerate you 
must seem to the first settlers in the community who would 
go every week over to Cambridge for church, at least I 
suppose they did before you had a church here, and think 
nothing of it; beside the Thursday lecture which I have 
no doubt all the persons in this vicinity attended regularly. 
Now we hardly go so far afield for our religious services 
and yet, for myself, I believe that in this voluntary system 
which has been the outgrowth of experience we have not 
lost so much as we sometimes think in the loyalty to the 
church. Such a gathering as this shows that kind of 
loyalty, a loyalty which comes without any compulsion 
from any power outside ourselves. We go to church be- 
cause the church meets some need in our lives. 

The text that was given me for this evening is "The 
Liberty of Prophesying," and as I read it I thought how 
that to our minds generally brings back the peculiar Puri- 
tan traditions through which in early New England we 
got our connection with the great historic church. But 
you remember that that phrase "Liberty of Prophesying," 
however it may have been used by the Puritan, gained its 



THE BANQUET I5I 

great vogue by a contemporary of the New England Puri- 
tans who was not himself a Puritan. It was a Bishop of the 
established Church of England, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 
who wrote his great epoch-making book which he called 
"The Liberty of Prophesying," the great plea for religious 
toleration. He lived in an age of intolerance, and he made 
his plea there in the seventeenth century for toleration, 
for the liberty that comes to every man to speak out of 
his own heart the truth as he sees it. And I cannot leave 
on this occasion, I think, any word that would be more 
full of meaning than that with which Bishop Taylor ends 
his book on "The Liberty of Prophesying," because it is 
based on that which is fundamental, that is, that religion 
itself, true religion, implies preference just in so far as our 
religion is based, not on our personal whim, but on a belief 
in God. God is the eternal, the all comprehensive as the 
all comprehending. Bishop Taylor, in his book "The 
Spirit of Prophesying," ends with the story from the old 
Jewish writings of Abraham. He says that Abraham was 
sitting by his tent in the evening and an old man one hun- 
dred years old came to the tent and asked hospitality. 
Abraham received him and spread his mat for him and 
waited for some time until the old man should kneel in 
prayer. The old man didn't pray. Abraham wondered 
what was the matter and asked him and the old man said 
he wasn't accustomed to pray according to his form, that 
he was a fire worshiper, and did not agree with Abraham 
at all, so Abraham, according to the custom of the time, 
simply turned him out. And after a little while the Lord 
spoke to Abraham and said, "Abraham, where is your 
guest?" Abraham told him that he had turned him out, 
which was to him a religious act. And the Lord said, 
"Abraham, I have borne with this man one hundred years, 
and cannot you bear with him for at least one night?" 
Thereupon Abraham asked him back. 

Now I suppose that is really what has happened ; that is 
what I like to think has happened in this world; not that 
toleration has come because we are less interested in religion ; 



152 THE BANQUET 

I don't think that that kind of toleration is an advance or 
a progress. I think that the real toleration which has 
come is something deeper than that. It is the conscience 
that we are standing here in the presence of a power greater 
than ours and that we are directly related to that power. 
It is a toleration which comes from the larger knowledge of 
the world, the need of greater variety in activity, above all 
the toleration which comes from greater reverence and 
greater patience. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

We have with us this evening a real descendent, a live 
Puritan exhibit, likewise an honored member of our ju- 
diciary. Judge Bacon is the great-grandson of Deacon 
Woodward who used to play that old violin in the other 
room when he was in the choir. 

In the old Puritan days a young man about to start on 
a journey went to the closet for his rifle. His wife said to 
him, "Why do you take that rifie? Don't you know that 
your manner of going off and the hour have been decreed 
from long distant time and that that rifle cannot vary the 
decree one hair's breadth?" The young man replied, "I 
do not take the rifle with me to vary, but to execute the 
decree. What if I should meet an Indian on my journey 
whose time had come according to the decree and I didn't 
have my rifle with me?" 

Judge Bacon was surprised in his court room this morn- 
ing by a man coming in, when the Judge was on the bench 
and lost in revery as to what he was going to say here to- 
night, and said, "Good morning, Judge. You don't seem 
to recognize me." The Judge said, "No, sir." He said, 
"Four years ago you sent me to prison and I have just got 
out and I thought I would make my first call on you." 
The Judge, absorbed in his speech, said, "Many happy re- 
turns of the day." 

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Judge Bacon. 



THE BANQUET 153 

RESPONSE BY JUDGE WILLIAM F. BACON 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: As I look on 
this group of wise and reverend men assembled on either 
side of me at this table, my position reminds me of a story, 
which may be old but is appropriate. An intoxicated indi- 
vidual stumbled into a revival service one evening and 
managing to make his way with some difficulty down the 
center aisle, sank into a front seat. The speaker was just 
closing his remarks, and as he finished he called upon every 
one who wished to go to Heaven to rise. Every one arose 
up but the inebriate. The speaker then asked those to 
rise who wished to go to, — the other place, and looked 
hard at the drunken man in front of him. The latter, 
realizing that something was expected of him, struggled to 
his feet, and as he looked round and saw nobody standing, 
except the minister and himself, said, "Mr. Chairman, 
it appears that you and me are in a hopeless minority." 

Seventy years ago the means of transportation between 
Newton Centre and Newton (or Newton Corner, as the 
southsiders prefer to call it) were in some respects less 
satisfactory than they are to-day. The one horse chaise 
or sleigh could not compete, in the matter of speed, with 
the modern motor. And yet I fancy that my father was 
well content to let the old horse jog along with all modera- 
tion -as he used to bring over to the Old First Church, of a 
Sunday morning, the young woman, a southsider, by the 
way, who was destined to be my mother. The old horse 
did not skid into trees or telephone poles, his shoes were 
puncture-proof, and if perchance the sleigh did upset in a 
heavy drift down by the Old Cemetery, as sometimes 
happened, old Dick would look solemnly on while the 
young couple emerged from the drift and righted the sleigh. 

Even in those days not every one was willing to take 
the trip to the Centre to attend church and it became evi- 
dent that if people were to be induced to go to church, 
places of worship would have to be established near them. 
So arose a series of organizations, the children of this church, 



154 THE BANQUET 

and so at the same time was born the responsibility of this 
mother church for the actions of her children. I wonder if 
the members of this First Church realize how important 
it is for them to travel in the straight and narrow path. 
I think it can do no harm to remind them that we are look- 
ing to them to set the standard for the rest of us. 

I admit that there is a counter-responsibility on our part. 
The child, when he reaches years of discretion, always 
feels a certain sense of responsibility for the propriety of 
the acts of its parents. I have two children, both in college, 
a boy and a girl, and I notice they do not hesitate to in- 
struct their parents in what it is proper to do and to wear. 
They volunteer their criticism of the old folks with aston- 
ishing frankness, and if in their opinion any custom or 
style is out of date, we are told of it in unmistakable terms. 
Our mother church may similarly expect to be set right 
from time to time by her children. And in these days, 
when the old ladies are said to spend half their time in 
learning the one step and "the lame duck," and the rest 
of their time in playing auction bridge, it cannot be out of 
place for the children to have a watchful eye on them. 

Seriously, a man or woman whose parents were stead- 
fast. God-fearing Christians has throughout life a power- 
ful incentive to right living. In the same way, a church 
which had its beginnings as a child of a stalwart, aggressive 
mother church, has, throughout its history, an example 
to follow and to look up to, which should keep it true to 
the ideals and principles imparted to it at its birth. 

Mr. Toastmaster, your young daughter, the Church 
around at the Corner, wishes to express the hope that the 
long, honorable and useful career of this grand old First 
Church may continue forever. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

The gentleman whom I am now about to call upon has 
a unique position here. His name appears upon the roll of 
two of the oldest churches of New England, the Old South 



THE BANQUET 155 

Church of Boston, and the older First Church of Christ in 
Cambridge, and this church, though last, is not least in 
love, since he proposed to join her, having found the ideal 
for which he was seeking. He is to speak on "Church 
Folks," and if any one can claim a companionship with 
church folk, he can, because he has been identified himself 
with them from his earliest childhood. 

Coming home from the Old South one day when a small 
boy his mother asked him what the sermon was about 
that morning. He said the sermon that morning was on the 
text "Come in, darling." His mother said, "Why, no, 
that cannot be." He hung to it so long that his mother 
finally inquired of one of the deacons and found that it 
was, "Walk in love." 

Mr. Hall, ladies and gentlemen. 

RESPONSE BY HON. J. M. W. HALL 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel very much 
at home this evening, and yet somewhat of a stranger. I 
am rather confused by the peculiar relation which I sustain 
to this church and to the mother of this church. My 
maternal ancestress, Mary Hall, was one of the earliest 
members of the First Church in Cambridge, the date being 
1639. The Rev. Dr. Hooker, who was pastor and had 
decided to move from Cambridge and settle in Hartford, 
did all he could to carry the members of the church with him. 
Some of them declined to go, among whom was the said 
Mary Hall. 

I was for many years, before coming to Newton, a mem- 
ber of this First Church in Cambridge and when I came to 
Newton Centre, I became a member of this church, which 
is the oldest daughter of the First Church in Cambridge. 

For recreation and for easy working out, I would like to 
have you solve the problem of this relationship. By 
inheritance a grandson; and by adoption a son of the First 
Church in Cambridge. When I united with the church 
here, I became a son oj the daughter of the First Church in 



156 THE BANQUET 

Cambridge; and the question is, who am I ? Am I a grand- 
son, or a son, or a son of a son, and if I should ever transfer 
my relationship (as I have no immediate thought of doing) 
to the First Church in Cambridge, would I be my own uncle? 
And what relation would my grandmother then sustain to 
me? 

I am afraid that when you begin to think of the problem, 
your answer will be that I am a son of a son really, and "an 
heir to all " kinds of inheritances that fade not away. 

The subject selected for me to speak on this evening is 
"Church Folks." A large subject, and as the time is short 
to analyze it, I am going to divide it into three parts, illus- 
trating each, and leaving you to make the application. 

My first point: In this matter we are apt to think that 
"church folks" are different from other folks. Well, are 
they? That is, can you identify "church folks" from any 
other class on the street or in an assembly? Their personal 
appearance? How they look? What they are doing? 
The company they are in? The illustration is this: Not 
long ago I was in New York waiting to take the midnight 
train for Boston. On walking down Sixth Avenue, having 
an hour to wait, I saw a newsboy crying as if his heart would 
break. I said, "My little boy, what troubles you?" He 
said, " My father beats me if I don't sell all my papers before 
I get home." I said, "How many have you?" We 
counted them — thirty-four. I said, "I will pay you for 
them and you can take them to the newspaper office and 
they will redeem them, and you can have that much extra. " 
I passed on feeling perhaps I had done a good turn on that 
chilly night. After walking a little way, I turned back 
and who should I find in that same spot but that same boy 
with the same tears and same papers. I went up to a 
policeman, and said, " I don't want you to do anything with 
that chap, but that little cuss persuaded me with tears to 
buy all his papers because he would be beaten if he did not 
sell them, and here he is crying his heart out as hard as ever." 
The policeman said, "Oh he thought you were one of those 
church folk coming home from meeting!" He added, 



THE BANQUET 157 

"That was an easy one on you, wasn't it?" I said, "Yes, 
it was, but what does that boy use to cry so easy — onion 
juice?" He repHed, "They can cry as easy as they can 
laugh. That boy will probably sell those papers three or 
four times over to-night." Now, then, how can you tell 
church folk? Is it that they are easy to be imposed on? 
Or that their sympathies are not well educated,- — and so 
lack insight? Or is a small newsboy a match for adult 
church folk? 

My second point is by contrast: I walked on toward the 
depot and saw across the street an illuminated sign, " Rescue 
Mission." I said to myself, "I guess I can spend fifteen 
minutes there. " I had never been in one of the kind before. 
As I went in, I said to the man at the door, "Are these seats 
all free?" He said, "Yes," so I took a seat in the middle 
of the room, a room holding about two hundred. There 
were about one hundred and twenty-five there, mostly men, 
a few women. The man who had charge of the meeting 
kept beckoning for me to come up front. I paid no atten- 
tion to him. He did that three or four times. As one 
after another related their experiences, I noticed he kept 
beckoning to me. At last I got up and went out and said 
to the man at the door, "What was that man beckoning to 
me for?" He said, "You happened to sit in the place 
where the latest reformed drunkards sit and he thought you 
were one, so he beckoned for you to come up and give an 
account of your reform. " I went out thoughtful and asking 
myself, how can you tell church folks; do they look like 
reformed drunkards? Between being imposed on by a 
"gamin," and presenting myself in a mission meeting as 
a "reformed drunkard," how can anyone tell church folks 
from other simple, unsuspecting people? 

My third point is the answer to several questions the 
illustrations have suggested. 

How and where shall we be sure we are and are with 
"church folks"? The answer is right here before us, per- 
fectly illustrated. Here is a large company of those who 
are met to congratulate the oldest sister of one branch of 



158 THE BANQUET 

our common faith on having attained her two hundred and 
fiftieth birthday anniversary; and as we receive your con- 
gratulations we know you are each saying, "Not as though 
I had already attained" — "but I press toward the mark for 
the prize " of our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. We 
gladly receive these congratulations and wish you all "God- 
speed" and the highest achievements, as you press toward 
this goal. 

What a company this is of all these different denomina- 
tions, and yet holding a common faith, a common hope. 
Surely we realize with unusual force the words of our 
familiar hymn: 

"One family we dwell in Him 
One church above — ^beneath," 

And what a company this is! No ordinary gathering this! 
As the freshman class carried a banner on the day of the 
celebration of Harvard's two hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary having this inscription, "Harvard has waited two 
hundred and fifty years for us," so we can claim the same 
distinguished honor for this gathering. 

We are glad to welcome you as brothers and sisters, to 
share our years of achievement, and our hopes for yet larger 
success in the years before us. 

Newton Centre has enjoyed many pleasant social occa- 
sions. It is a model in many respects of all that is true and 
best and hopeful in community life. This evening will add 
one more laurel to our victories, for here we have realized 
as never before, perhaps, that we are brothers and sisters, 
rejoicing in each other's success; participating in one 
another's joys; sharing one another's cares and hopes, and 
looking forward to the "house of many mansions," where 
we shall no longer find Congregationalists, Baptists, Metho- 
dists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and all other denomina- 
tional names as guide-boards, but as we each reach the 
"gates of pearl" and the "streets of gold," and the gates 
open to receive us and we are asked, "Who are you and 
where from?" we shall have just one answer, "We are from 



THE BANQUET 1 59 

Newton Centre; just plain church folks." And I think we 
shall find the home prepared for us will be the first street on 
the right side. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

The next speaker is variously introduced as an eminent 
divine and a great educator, but to us here he is our good 
neighbor and friend, Dr. Huntington. You all know his 
genial manner with children. He was going by the church 
with Mrs. Huntington the other day. They met two chil- 
dren dressed just alike. The Doctor patted them on the 
head and said, "Are you twins?" "No, sir; we are Metho- 
dists." Dr. Huntington. 

RESPONSE BY REV. WILLIAM E. HUNTINGTON, 
D.D., LL.D. 

Mr. Toastniaster , Brethren and Sisters: I feel as though 
I were among my own kindred and in the fellowship of 
my own "household of Faith" as I share in your festivities 
this evening. As I look upon Dr. Furber's splendid portrait 
on the opposite wall, I am reminded of the intimate friend- 
ship that our family enjoyed with him during many of his 
later years. For we were his next door neighbors. Then, 
after Dr. Furber passed into the Better Country, the par- 
sonage became the home of Dr. May, the skilful, patient 
and faithful physician, who is ready, morning, noon and 
night, to go out on his errands of comfort and healing. 
My relations with your pastor have always been delightful. 
A preacher of rare ability, of scholarly tastes and habits, 
a true shepherd in his pastoral relations, a broad-minded 
and loyal citizen, he has made himself a power in our whole 
community. 

It is not an exaggeration for me to confess to you that 
I am a near Congregationalist ! My Pilgrim ancestor, one 
of the Mayflower company, was Richard Warren. One 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 
Samuel Huntington of Connecticut, an early member of 



l60 THE BANQUET 

the Huntington "clan" to which my forebears belonged. 
While I am not a Congregationalist, I think the blood of 
those Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors runs warmly in my 
veins, and I feel a distinct and vital friendship for those 
who are the hosts of this occasion. My grandfather, Rev. 
Dan Huntington, was the predecessor of Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, as pastor of the Congregational Church at Litch- 
field, Connecticut. Rev. Dr. Barton told me of a singular 
dream that startled him from his slumbers not long since. 
He said " In my vision my son came to me in some trepi- 
dation and exclaimed, "Did you know, father, that Dr. 
Huntington had become a Roman Catholic?" In the 
language of the Apostle's Creed I am ready to say "I be- 
lieve in the Holy Catholic — Universal — Church," and by 
the ties that bind me to a noble ancestry I am a near 
Congregationalist. 

The text given to me by the toastmaster is — Loyalty 
to Conscience. The Pilgrims and the Puritans made much 
of conscience in their theories of moral and religious life. 
We are prone to criticise their conception of conscience, 
calling it rigid, severe, uncompromising. But, in our times, 
when moral standards are so often blurred and disregarded, 
it is after all refreshing to think of the sturdy type of ethical 
conduct that those founders of American nationality held 
so high and lived up to so well. Sometimes what is called 
conscience is only a whim. One of my university colleagues 
was accustomed at one period to go to a summer school for 
ministers, in Pennsylvania, where he lectured on the rela- 
tions of philosophy and religion. His hearers were from 
the rural districts, earnest, faithful ministers, but having 
somewhat crude notions as to interpretation of certain 
Scriptures and in regard to questions of duty. One man 
would not wear buttons on his coat, for he considered it 
sinful to fasten his garments with anything but hooks and 
eyes. Another would not send his children to the high 
school because the apostolic injunction is — "Mind not 
high things." 

A mere prejudice may be so fostered and misnamed as to 



THE BANQUET l6l 

act the r61e of conscience. Pilgrim and Puritan were not 
guiltless in this perversion. Prejudice of race against race, 
prejudice of class against class, prejudice arising from a 
foolish antipathy, all such forms of narrow and critical 
judgments of fellow men when exalted to the place and 
function of conscience are mischievous, and loyalty to these 
travesties upon conscience is a sad mockery. 

A false definition may be made to do the work of con- 
science and men may give to it their loyal service. The 
noble principle of liberty may be wrongly defined and ap- 
plied in poltical and moral relations; and that false defi- 
nition may be taken as the very essence of a so-called 
conscience. Scriptures may suffer from wrong definition 
and interpretation, and mistaken opinion derived from 
these be exalted to the place of conscience. There can be 
no real loyalty to an unreal conscience. 

When we visited California a few years since it was our 
privilege to go to the top of Mount Wilson where there is 
the largest reflecting telescope in the world. Astronomers 
selected that site for the observatory in order to have a 
pure atmosphere through which to look into the heavens; 
that mountain top is far above the dusty plain of Pasadena. 
We want a lofty spiritual elevation for conscience. The 
old Puritan conscience, sometimes narrow, sometimes dis- 
torted, sometimes a mere whimsey, is not the moral dynamic 
needed in our time, but conscience raised to a height where 
it may be flooded with the moral life and light that radiates 
from the Sermon on the Mount. We want a conscience 
that sends us out to our fellow men, to the poor, the dis- 
heartened, the forsaken, the sinful. For conscience's sake, 
for Christ's sake, we ought to let the light of the gospel 
shine into their hearts as well as our own. There is only 
one supreme authority for moral life. The divine law is 
its only tribunal. We have come to a time when a new 
definition of patriotism is demanded, when brotherly 
duties to fellow men reach across national boundaries, 
when loyalty to king or kaiser is not enough; but loyalty 

12 



1 62 THE BANQUET 

to the Ruler of all men is the only patriotism that will 
answer the eternal standards of the Almighty. 

I am sure, my friends, that you are with me in this great 
desire that I now express that we may pledge ourselves 
anew to utmost loyalty to the enlightened conscience 
within us, making it the guide of conduct, the inspiration 
of all wholesome duty, as we go out on our several paths 
of service to our Master and the church. 

TOASTMASTER 

A toast is often a prayer. At family gatherings toasts 
are drunk to absent friends. On our frontiers they drink 
to wives and sweethearts. They all respond to the toast 
to the flag. And I give you all these three toasts and ask 
you all to join in singing the last verse of America. 



CLOSING SERVICE 

MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1914 



CLOSING SERVICE 



LONG before the hour announced, the crowd began to 
gather, and when the guests at the banquet came in 
to occupy the seats reserved for them, the rest of the house 
was already filled. While they were waiting, Mr. Maclean 
gave another organ recital, playing the Grand Choeur in 
G minor, by Giiilmant, the Scottish Eclogue, by Salome, 
the Prelude, Clerambault (composed 1676) by Wheeldon, 
and the Festival Prelude, by Ravanello. 

The opening hymn was "I love Thy Kingdom, Lord." 
The choir sang Smart's "Te Deum Laudamus." The 
Scriptures were read and prayer was oflfered by the pastor. 

PRAYER 

Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes 

O Thou, Who art from everlasting to everlasting and 
whose years fail not, we rejoice in Thine unchanging love, 
in Thy fidelity to the successive generations of men. We 
praise Thee that though generations come and go. Thou 
remainest faithful. Our fathers trusted in Thee and Thou 
didst deliver them, and their children and their children's 
children have tasted Thine unchanging love and have leaned 
upon Thy Word and have found it an unfailing support; 
and so we lift up our hearts and our voices unto Thee, our 
fathers' God and our God, and seek for the continuance 
upon us in our day of that blessing in the strength of which 
they lived and in the hope of which they died. Give unto 
us this night, we pray Thee, Thy guidance for our efforts. 
May all our worship be acceptable in Thy sight, and may 
we go out from this House of God with a new sense of the 



1 66 CLOSING SERVICE 

greatness of life, with a new vision of its opportunities for 
service, a greater sense of its responsibility and obligations, 
and a new purpose to do, so far as in us lies. Thy will. And 
so, adding unto our faith, knowledge, and in our knowledge 
supplying temperance, and in our temperance, brotherly- 
kindness, and in our brotherly-kindness, charity, may we 
go on, adding more strength to strength, until every one 
of us shall appear before God, and unto Him be the 
glory, now and evermore. Amen, 



After the prayer, the choir sang Sullivan's " I Will Men- 
tion Thy Loving- Kindness," and the pastor then introduced 
the speaker of the evening as follows: 

Congregationalists were sometimes called at the begin- 
ning of their history Independents or Separatists because 
their cardinal principle was that each church was a self- 
governing body acknowledging no authority outside of 
and above itself, except the authority of the risen Lord, 
and they have never abandoned that fundamental princi- 
ple. But they have found as the years have gone by that 
if they got together for counsel and also for co-operation, 
carrying on the great work in one enterprise, it would be 
better. So at last we have after many years a great Na- 
tional Council in which all the Congregational Churches 
of the land are represented. I suppose if we had anything 
that corresponded to a Bishop it would be the Moderator 
of the National Council; and I am very glad we have the 
honor to-night to have with us as the speaker of this closing 
service, he whom the churches at this period of the Na- 
tional Council have chosen to honor in selecting him to be 
their Moderator; and I am very glad to introduce to you 
as the speaker, the Dean of the Yale School of Religion, 
the Rev. Charles R. Brown, D.D., Moderator of the Na- 
tional Council of the Congregational Churches. 



THE CHURCH THAT STANDS 
FOUR-SQUARE 

By Rev. Charles Reynolds Brown, D.D. 

WHEN John had his vision on the Isle of Patmos he 
saw a Holy City, an ideal social order. It was not 
a stationary ideal, it was moving. It was coming down out 
of heaven from God. It was coming down out of the realm 
of fancy into the realm of accomplished fact. 

Not away yonder in the skies but here on this com- 
mon earth there was to come an order of life that would 
have in it the glory of God, causing it to shine like a cluster 
of jewels. Here on this earth was to come an order of life 
into which the kings of the earth, the mighty ruling forces 
of society, would bring their glory and honor. Here on this 
earth was to be worked out an order of life into which noth- 
ing would enter that would defile or work abomination, or 
make a lie. It was a magnificent ideal, not static but 
dynamic, not stationary but moving, coming down out of 
heaven from God, out of the realm of vision into the realm 
of spiritual achievement. 

This ideal social order stood four-square. It faced in 
every direction; it fronted squarely and directly on every 
conceivable human interest and activity. It stood there 
with three gates on each side, "on the east three gates, on 
the west three gates, on the north three gates, on the south 
three gates." It was openly inviting all these varied human 
interests to come in and receive interpretation and illumina- 
tion at the hands of the spiritual forces there resident. It 
stood there solid, symmetrical, four-square, facing all the 
winds of influence that might blow, ready to send out its 
own beneficent influence on every field of human effort. 

Now I take it that this may well represent the ideal 
Christian church. It, too, must be an open, hospitable 



1 68 CLOSING ADDRESS 

place, calling upon the kings of the earth, the mighty ruling 
forces of human society, to bring their glory and honor into 
it. It, too, undertakes to fill this entire life of ours with 
divine glory so that it will have no need of the sun or the 
moon to lighten it. It undertakes to interpret and illumi- 
nate all the various interests and activities of human life 
by the spiritual forces which it embodies. And to do this 
it must in like manner stand four-square, facing upon all 
there is. 

I wonder how far our own Pilgrim churches have measured 
up to that comprehensive ideal? When I study their 
history I find that these four fundamental interests have 
been faced and met. 

/. The Interest of Christian Education. 

This is one of the primary fundamental interests of our 
Christian faith. The title which Jesus received most com- 
monly and most willingly was that of "Master." He called 
his followers "Disciples," that is to say, "learners" or 
"pupils " in the mode of life He came to introduce. He was 
in the habit of saying, "I am the Truth; and ye shall 
know the Truth; and the Truth shall make you free" — 
free from all that would hurt or hinder their growth and 
usefulness. The redemption of those men would be like 
an educational process in spiritual nurture and culture. 

When Jesus saw the multitude He opened His mouth not 
to scold them, not to flatter them — "He opened His mouth 
and taught them" what they needed to know. When He 
finished the people were astonished at His doctrine because 
He taught them as One having the authority of immediate, 
first-hand knowledge of spiritual reality. He was ready to 
stake the future of His cause on the slow, patient, but 
irresistible processes of spiritual education. He believed 
that His followers could go forth and by instruction and 
persuasion, by the power of moral appeal and right example 
build a kingdom of thought, feeling and purpose against 
which the gates of hell could not prevail. 

Now the Congregational church has from the first had 



CLOSING ADDRESS I69 

this interest of Christian education upon its heart. The 
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620. They were com- 
pelled like the apostles of old to work in hunger and cold, 
in weariness and painfulness, in perils of savages and in 
perils of the wilderness. Yet, in exactly sixteen years from 
the time they landed on that bleak coast, they, out of their 
penury, founded Harvard College, which abides to this day 
as the leading university on this continent. 

They were not giving their surplus change as multi- 
millionaires are wont to do in the endowment of colleges 
and universities. They were giving away their very sub- 
stance in such fashion as to involve hardship and self- 
sacrifice. They founded Harvard in 1636; then followed 
Yale in 1701. And then Amherst and Dartmouth, Williams 
and Bowdoin, Oberlin and Beloit, Colorado and Whitman, 
Mount Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley for the higher educa- 
tion of women — and more than a score of other colleges, 
all founded by the people of our faith and order. They 
did it primarily that they might have a trained and educated 
ministry. They would not offer to the Lord at their altars 
of worship or in the pulpits of instruction that which had 
cost them nothing. And they would also provide for the 
instruction of young men and maidens for all the walks of 
life under the stimulus and guidance of Christian ideals. 

If we should call the roll of the great college presidents 
we have raised up, it would make a permanent and glorious 
addition to that list of worthies contained in the eleventh 
chapter of Hebrews. These men also wrought righteous- 
ness and obtained promises, they subdued kingdoms of ig- 
norance and ungodliness, putting to flight great armies of 
aliens who warred against the higher ideals of a Christian 
commonwealth. Mark Hopkins and Theodore Woolsey, 
Noah Porter and Timothy D wight, Daniel C. Oilman and 
William J. Tucker, James B. Angell and Cyrus D. Northrop! 
These great leaders were engaged in "the care and culture 
of men, " which Emerson says is the highest form of human 
effort. If you would find their monuments look not in any 
place of cold marble — look into the lives of those men who. 



170 CLOSING ADDRESS 

on all the varied fields of human effort, are showing that 
they have caught the vision and are living in the service 
of life at its best. The men who have given of their best 
to the great interests of Christian education have been 
master builders in the rearing of that ideal social order 
which is to stand four-square. 

The real work of education grows every year more vital. 
The campus abuts more directly on the market-place and 
the polling place. The highest buildings look off with un- 
obstructed view upon the farm and the factory, the mill and 
the mine, the home and the church. They were built in 
the first place to minister directly to all the main forms of 
everyday life. 

You will occasionally find people, some of them on the 
campus and some of them off the campus, to whom knowl- 
edge is nothing but a statement. It is a statement to be 
written out and printed in a book for other people to read. 
" Here is knowledge, " they say, " read it, study it, memorize 
it if you will, and in the day of examination you will be 
saved." 

You will find others to whom knowledge is nothing but 
a tool. It is a tool which can be set to dig or to build, to 
heal or to plead, to teach or to preach, and thus made to 
yield a financial return. "Here is knowledge," they say, 
"master the use of it and it will put money in thy purse. " 

You will find others to whom knowledge is nothing but 
a picture to be framed and hung on the wall. "Here is 
knowledge," they say, "learn to admire it as a man of 
culture; read Browning twice in the week; give a tithe of 
your time to the Atlantic Monthly and you will be numbered 
with the 61ite." The abstract, the commercial and the 
decorative ideas of knowledge all have their turn at the bat, 
and they all fail to score when the game is written up be- 
cause they deal only with that which is secondary. 

The primary office of knowledge is to make people alive; 
alive at more points, alive on higher levels, alive in more in- 
teresting and effective ways. The school enters the com- 
munity saying, "I am come that you might have life and 



CLOSING ADDRESS I7I 

that you might have it more abundantly. This know and 
thou shalt live." It undertakes to send out into the high- 
ways and byways young men and women who are alive to 
their finger tips — alive all the way up, and all the way down, 
and all the way in. It would make therr^ alive in their hearts 
with noble sentiments and fine purposes as well as in their 
heads; alive in their souls with a sense of the deeper and 
more enduring values as well as in their hands trained to 
profitable tasks. The school at its best is the competent 
and willing servant of life at its best. 

When Bronson Alcott was living in Concord he strolled 
one day into the village school. He was invited to address 
the school. He stood up, looking at the children with that 
genuine interest he felt in whatever was human — and I 
suppose the ordinary schoolroom would yield as many bush- 
els of pure, unadulterated human nature to the acre as any 
field to be named. 

He presently burst out, "What did you children come 
here for?" They looked at each other, whispered a little, 
giggled a little, feeling rather tickled on the whole at being 
inquired of, instead of being preached to. Finally, one 
of the bolder spirits raised his hand and said, "We came 
to learn." "To learn what?" Mr. Alcott asked. Again 
the children meditated and recalled, perhaps, the particular 
aspects of their experience at school which had impressed 
them most, and the answer came back, "To learn to behave." 

"You have it right," the philosopher said. "Out of the 
mouths of babes and sucklings," out of the utterances of 
those simple, direct, childlike minds which say just what 
they think, the world adds mainly to its store of knowledge. 
The children had come there above all else that they might 
learn to behave, wisely, nobly, usefully. 

By this I do not mean the transformation of the ex- 
ercises of the schoolroom into a preaching service. I mean 
that the whole process of education should be firmly held 
within the grip of that moral purpose which undertakes to 
send out young men and maidens with both the ability and 
the disposition to behave wisely, nobly, usefully. The 



172 CLOSING ADDRESS 

school is the servant of life in the broadest sense and the 
Pilgrim churches have done well in giving thorough, gener- 
ous attention to the great interests of Christian education. 

//. The Cause of Christian Missions. 

The first three words Jesus uttered were, "Come, Follow, 
Abide. " "Come unto Me and I will give you rest. Come 
unto Me and I will give you Eternal Life." This invited 
the movement of the life toward that which is central and 
fundamental. 

"Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. " Follow 
Me and I will make you the servants of life. This indicates 
the further movement of the life not on lines identical with 
His, but parallel. 

"Abide in Me and ye shall bring forth much fruit. " This 
indicates the more intimate dynamic relation of the life to 
Him, not provided for in the idea of coming or following. 

"Come, Follow, Abide " — these were His first three words, 
but there was a fourth and last word. Just before He left 
His disciples He said, "Go. " This provides for the expres- 
sion of that quality of life gained by coming, following, and 
abiding, in concrete action and service. Go! Go every- 
where! Tell everybody! Go into all the world and tell 
the good news you have received to every creature ! And 
lo, I am with you in that great work even unto the con- 
summation of your highest hopes. It was the great task 
of world-wide Christian missions which He there laid upon 
their hearts. 

The Congregational church has made a splendid showing 
on that side of our four-square life. Those young men of 
prophetic mood held their haystack meeting at Williams 
College and it led to the organization of the American Board 
of Foreign Missions. They knelt down saying, "We can 
do it if we will." They rose up saying, "We can do and 
we will." 

Some of the most eminent names in missionary service on 
all the fields of earth are the names of men who caught the 
fire of missionary zeal at our altars. Hiram Bingham and 



CLOSING ADDRESS 1 73 

Titus Coan in Hawaii ; Hamlin, Riggs and Barton in Turkey; 
Arthur H. Smith in China; John H. DeForest and Sidney 
L. GuHck in Japan; Robert A. Hume in India, and a great 
host of others! Write these names also in your postscript 
to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. These men also 
wrought righteousness and obtained promises; they sub- 
dued kingdoms and turned to flight the armies of aliens. 
They went out not knowing whither they went, but when 
they began to achieve they saw the Kingdom of God coming 
in those darker lands with power and great glory. 

The record in home missionary effort is no less brilliant. 
The action of the young man or young woman in leaving 
home and kindred for missionary service abroad is more 
picturesque. The work of the foreign missionary as he 
ministers to men and women strangely clad and of an alien 
tongue has more of romance in it. But for sheer devotion 
to an ideal, for self-sacrifice which cuts down to the 
quick, for unflagging effort looking toward high ends, there 
is nothing finer in Christian history than the work of hun- 
dreds of our home missionaries. 

They have gone out with no waving of banners and with 
no sound of trumpets to the lumber camps and the mining 
towns, to little lonely churches in rural communities and to 
the moral frontiers in our great cities to labor among un- 
responsive immigrants. All honor to them for this magnifi- 
cent service! We had an " Iowa Band" which came out of 
Andover and their names are written across the moral life 
of that commonwealth in the Middle West to stay. We had 
a "Yale Band" for the state of Washington and they 
carried the finest Christian traditions of that university and 
engraved them upon the eager, restless life of the Northwest. 
We had other similar bands recruited from many of the 
older institutions of the East going out to the frontier that 
the gospel of Christ might make its full appeal through their 
cultured and consecrated lives. The spirit said, "Go" and 
they went — and all the states of this Union, west of the 
AUeghanies, still rise up and call them blessed. 

We have learned that the work of home missions is no 



174 CLOSING ADDRESS 

small charity on the side, to which the prosperous may now 
and then give a bit of patronizing attention. We have 
learned not to make our appeals with harrowing stories of 
the most intimate needs of the home missionary's wife and 
children. We feel now that the work of home missions is 
the act of the Christian portion of the nation taking upon 
its heart the sense of responsibility for the spiritual welfare 
of the whole nation. It is the act of the Christian forces of 
the nation girding themselves to drive back those forces of 
ignorance, of indifference and of sin, which make against 
the peace of this our Israel. The army of aggression is 
made up out of our own home missionary men and women. 

We have changed the form of appeal in the work of 
foreign missions. The old rescue idea of snatching the 
heathen as brands from the burning before it was eternally 
too late does not interest men or move the heart, or open 
the purse as it once did. We do not know as much to-day 
about the final judgment as our forefathers knew or pro- 
fessed to know. We believe that "the mercy of God is 
from everlasting and to everlasting"; we believe that "His 
compassions fail not" and we do not attempt to be wise 
above what is written in undertaking to indicate the final 
destiny of those less-favored peoples who have never heard 
of Christ. 

We have also changed our mental attitude toward the 
non-Christian religions. We have no words of contempt 
for those imperfect faiths. We believe that whatever light 
has fallen upon the page of duty and privilege in any land 
has come ultimately from that true light which is destined 
to light every man coming into the world. We believe 
that "in every nation he that feareth God and worketh 
righteousness is accepted of Him" whether the man knows 
exactly how to spell God's name or not. 

But we feel all the more keenly as a result of our more 
thorough and sympathetic study of comparative religion 
that we are under obligation to share with those less- 
favored lands the best we have; and the best we have in 
this civilization of ours is our Christian faith. We arc, 



CLOSING ADDRESS 175 

therefore, set upon the exporting in generous measure of 
Christian physicians, Christian teachers, Christian preach- 
ers, with the hospital, the school and the church, all 
permeated by the Christian spirit. We send them out 
to build themselves strongly and vitally into the life of 
those lands which await our help. And just in proportion 
as travel and observation bring home to us the need of 
moral renewal and of spiritual dynamic in all those lands, 
this obligation becomes the more insistent. 

When I was pastor of the First Church in Oakland, 
California, I could go into the belfry of my church and look 
straight out through the Golden Gate. I could see the great 
steamships of the Pacific Mail Line, the Manchuria, the 
Mongolia, the Siberia, the Korea, the very names of them 
indicative of our points of contact beyond that widest of 
all the seas. I could see these great ships coming and going 
through the Golden Gate. I knew that deep down in the 
hold of each one of these ships as they came in were the 
teas and the silks, the teak wood and the lacquer of the 
Orient, sent here to cheer and to adorn this life of ours. 
Through the portholes I could almost hear the murmur of 
alien voices and see the appealing look on alien faces as 
those strangely clad men came to this land of opportunity 
to better their condition. 

I knew that they represented a great unprivileged multi- 
tude who would never come, but would look this way with 
longing in their hearts. They would look through that 
Golden Gate at my church steeple and at yours with an 
unvoiced moral appeal in their hearts. And I used to feel 
that in their hearts and before Him with whom we have to 
do, we would never stand right unless we were sending out 
through that Golden Gate in generous measure all the 
blessings of this Christian civilization which we enjoy. 

It is for the churches of our faith to face squarely the 
great moral frontiers. Yonder in non-Christian lands, 
black men and brown men, yellow men and red men, await 
the influence of Christ's gospel! Here in our own land if 
you "arise and go toward the south" you will find "a man 



176 CLOSING ADDRESS 

of Ethiopia" waiting for some one to guide him as to the 
meaning of what he reads; waiting to be baptized into all 
the helpfulness of our Christian institutions! Here in our 
own land also the ends of the earth have come together, 
massing themselves in all our great cities! The immigrants, 
having broken their home ties and their old religious 
afifiliations, constitute one of our greatest problems. In the 
face of it all the church that is at ease is already accursed of 
God for not coming up to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty. It is for every Pilgrim church to build strongly 
and generously on that side of its four-square life. 

///. The Task of Social Service. 

The word social is in danger of being overworked. In 
some quarters the people show signs of weariness when the 
social applications of religion or the social activities of 
Christian service are being urged. The word had to be 
overworked to break up the fallow ground of a long-lying, 
contented individualism. 

But the idea of social service is not something new and 
fantastic, a novelty that some clever man worked out over 
night. It has been one of the chartered rights and duties of 
the Christian movement from the very first. When Jesus 
made His first public address there in the synagogue at 
Nazareth He struck the social note fairly and firmly. "The 
spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He hath anointed 
Me to preach good tidings to the poor. He hath sent Me 
to bind up the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and to set at liberty them that are bruised." 

Those words might have been embodied literally in 
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address or in his Emancipation 
Proclamation. They are there in spirit. They might be 
engraved literally on the doorpost of Graham Taylor's 
house in Chicago Commons — they are there in substance. 
They might sound forth when Washington Gladden makes 
his social appeal or sings, "Oh, Master, let me walk with 
Thee." They are there in the spiritual quality of this 
modern prophet's utterances. Social service is a part of 



CLOSING ADDRESS 1 77 

the simple, original, apostolic Christianity which we find 
in the New Testament. 

How natural it has been that many of the pioneers in this 
form of Christian effort, both ministers and laymen, have 
been men of our Pilgrim faith! It has been in the line of 
a genuine, apostolic succession. Our predecessors, the 
Puritan pastors of New England, dreamed of a day when 
they would have a genuine theocracy, a life ruled from on 
high by the spirit of God ; when all their interests, civic and 
industrial, educational and social, would be ruled by the 
will of God. 

They showed this in the three-fold use they made of a 
certain substantial building standing usually on the center 
of the Green. Lumber was scarce and dear, so that economy 
was imperative. On Sunday this building was used as a 
meeting-house; on the five succeeding days as a school- 
house ; and on Saturday as the townhouse. The same walls 
which had resounded under the mighty spiritual appeals of 
those sturdy preachers echoed back the voices of little chil- 
dren as they learned the multiplication table and declared 
the mysteries of English grammar; and then still later in 
the week the same walls heard the earnest debates of the 
citizens as they chose their selectmen and transacted the 
civil business of the community. It was a trinity of mani- 
festation, one house revealing itself as meeting-house, 
schoolhouse, and townhouse. This served to bring their 
entire life under the power of a spiritual consecration. 

The church, by the sheer strength of its spiritual influence, 
must still stand central in all the varied interests of 
our community life. It is the business of the church to 
deepen that sense of economic justice which will lead to a 
more equitable distribution of the joint products of brawn 
and brain. It is the business of the church to stand for a 
more democratic spirit in the control of the great industries 
because the main office of those industries is not to make 
money, but to make men. It is the business of the church 
to permeate the community more thoroughly with that 
sort of intelligent good will which alone can serve as the 

12 



178 CLOSING ADDRESS 

informing and directing agent in the development of a type 
of life which is to replace the present social disorder. It is 
the business of the church to insist that there is a Will of 
God in all this buying and selling, employing and being 
employed, producing, transporting, and exchanging — and 
that men can only be right in their hearts when they enter 
upon these activities saying, "Thy will be done here as it 
is done among the stars." It is the business of the four- 
square church to undertake all this, knowing how insufficient 
it is for the high and hard task, but knowing also that its 
strength will be made perfect in weakness if it sets its heart 
upon those things which are right in the sight of God. 

When I think of the thousands of depleted, insufficiently 
paid workers in this broad land, toiling oftentimes far into 
the night in close quarters with bad air, and remember who 
it was who said, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden and I will give you rest," I tremble for my 
country! When I see the mass of useless, debilitating lux- 
ury,^ much of it made possible by a lack of equity in the 
distribution of the proceeds of efifort between those who 
produce and those who are to consume, and remember 
who it was that said, "A man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things he possesseth; if any man would 
be My disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross 
and follow," I am afraid. When I see in this broad land 
of ours something like two millions of little children under 
the age of sixteen engaged in gainful occupations, being 
depleted in body, brain, and heart, toihng in mills and 
mines and factories, when they ought to be at school or 
playing in the open air, when I see all this and think who 
it was that said "Suffer the little children to come unto 
Me; whoso shall cause one of these little ones to stumble, 
it were better that a millstone were tied about his neck 
and that he were thrown into the sea," I shudder over the 
situation. We can never stand right with Him until we 
are striving to have His will done on all these broad areas 
of human interests. 

When that shirtwaist factory burned in New York City 



CLOSING ADDRESS 1 79 

a few years ago and burned up one hundred and forty- 
three working girls with it, the people held a mass meeting 
of protest the following Sunday in the Metropolitan Opera 
House. The place was packed. Bishop Greer spoke for 
the Christian people of the city, Rabbi Wise spoke for the 
Hebrews, and Jacob Schiff, capitalist and philanthropist, 
spoke for the kind-hearted people of good fortune. Many 
wise and kind words were uttered by those gentlemen. 
Then Miss Rose Schneiderman, head of the Shirtwaist 
Makers' Union was introduced. Here is what she said, — 
"This is not the first time working girls have been burned 
alive in the city of New York because men were breaking 
the law. On an average one working girl is killed each 
week and thousands are injured in the course of the year 
by unprotected, dangerous machinery. The lives of men 
and women are so cheap and property is so sacred. I should 
be a traitor to those poor burned bodies if I stood here and 
simply talked good fellowship. We have tried you good 
people and we have found you wanting. You give us a 
dollar apiece all around in charity in the face of a calamity 
like this, but when we come out in the only way we know to 
protest against conditions which are unbearable, then the 
strong hand of authority is down upon us instantly. I 
stand here to protest against the injustice of it all." 

The great audience listened in silence. The feeling was 
tense. The very contrast between that vital thrust and the 
placid, pallid things which had been said before made her 
sentences cut like knives. The people listened and thought, 
and drew long breaths, and then they rose up as one man, 
and shouted their approval as no Metropolitan audience 
ever shouted over the triumph of some singer like Melba or 
Caruso. The moral note had been struck and they rose to 
it. The moral note had been struck and it was a note of 
justice. Pity, compassion, kindliness — they are all good, 
but something more fundamental, more masculine, is 
needed first. This demand for justice between man and 
man in all the organized industrial life of our nation is the 
fundamental necessity. 



l80 CLOSING ADDRESS 

We profess to have the words of Eternal Life in our keep- 
ing as a church of the Hving God. We profess to have the 
oracles of God which we are commissioned to tell to the 
world. We stand as the organized expression of the Chris- 
tian impulse of the community. It is for us then to face 
all these social problems wisely, patiently, but squarely. 
It is for us to stimulate interest, to inspire action, to pro- 
claim the full content of the Christian gospel until, in this 
troubled world of work which eats up six-sevenths of the 
time and strength of our people, we shall see the ideal social 
order which John saw, coming down out of heaven from God 
to be set in operation here on this common earth. 

IV. The Work of Evangelism. 

Here we touch upon that which is fundamental to all the 
rest. The splendid work of Christian education is an 
expression of Christian impulse already begotten in the 
hearts of men and women who are Christians. The work 
of missions is carried on with the money and by the con- 
secrated manhood and womanhood of those who are already 
enrolled in the service of Christ. If we are to have that 
glorious thing called "Applied Christianity" in all these 
forms of social service we must have some Christianity to 
apply. Lincoln used to say, "If I am to be President of 
the United States I must first see to it that there is a United 
States to be President of." Our first concern, therefore, 
underlying all these other interests I have named, is to see 
that we have an increasing supply of Christianity which 
may find expression along these varied lines. 

The Master never allowed this simple, primary interest 
to be obscured. "Follow Me," he said, "and I will make 
you fishers of men." He sent His disciples out as good 
shepherds to find the lost sheep — the shepherd was not to 
come back until he could lay that lost sheep on his shoulders 
and bring it home rejoicing. Jesus breathed on His fol- 
lowers and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit! Whoseso- 
ever sins ye remit, they are remitted. Whatsoever you 
loose on earth shall be loosed in the realm of moral per- 



CLOSING ADDRESS l8l 

manence." They were to make full proof of their ministry 
by doing effectively the work of the evangelist. 

Our Pilgrim churches have not been lacking at this 
point. The Great Awakening which did so much toward 
furnishing the necessary moral fibre for the War of In- 
dependence was ushered in by the mighty evangelistic 
preaching of Jonathan Edwards. The spiritual passion in 
New York State, in Pennsylvania, and in the Western 
Reserve of Ohio, which aided so grandly in freeing the 
slaves, owed much to the great revivals initiated by Presi- 
dent Finney of Oberlin. And the whole v/orld knows that 
the greatest evangelist of the nineteenth century was 
Dwight L. Moody, a sturdy, consecrated, Congregational 
layman. The work of these Congregational evangelists 
was not mere noise and froth, creating a nine days' wonder 
and then leaving the community cold. It was the honest, 
thorough, effective enlisting of great numbers of thoughtful 
men and women in the open, active service of Jesus Christ. 
We cannot have too much of that type of evangelism. 

It is all the better in my judgment when it is mainly 
personal and pastoral in its dominant m.ethods. Let 
Andrew bring Simon ; let Philip bring Nathaniel ; let Thomas 
and Richard and Henry lead their fellows to Christ. In 
becoming fishers of men the hook and line method, one at a 
time, has a certain decided advantage over the drag net. 
It does not land so many fish at a time, but its catch does 
not need to be perpetually discounted by those factors 
which are represented by the sculpin and the dog fish, 
always brought in by the wholesale, miscellaneous effort. 

This personal evangelism is amazingly effective when it 
is followed up. In the Clinic on Evangelism held in Boston 
a year ago the fact was brought out that if we had one 
hundred Christians to start with and each Christian should 
bring one other soul to Christ in a year, and if this quiet, 
effective effort were maintained, it would only take twenty- 
four years to bring the whole human race into Christian 
life. Less than a generation! For every Christian to give 
sufficient time and strength in this particular interest to 



l82 CLOSING ADDRESS 

bring one person in twelve months into a life of Christian 
devotion does not seem too much! Yet look at the result 
to be achieved by such a method ! 

The Commission on Evangelism, appointed by the Na- 
tional Council at its last session, spent two full days last 
January in New York in prayer and consultation with the 
Executive Committee of the Council. They then sent 
out appeals to all our ministers, North, South, East and 
West. Seventy conferences of pastors were held to confer 
touching the best use to be made of those weeks before 
Easter for the ingathering of boys and girls, of young men 
and maidens, of men and women in mature life, into the 
church of Christ. A vast amount of quiet faithful effort 
to win people to Christian life and service was thus initiated. 
And the splendid showing which will be made in our next 
Year Book as to the increased number of people uniting 
with our churches on profession of faith, will be one of 
those results for which we all thank God. 

Here then you have the picture of these four main interests 
in the four-square church! There are three gates on every 
side through which Christian impulse may find expression 
on all these fields of effort. It is not wise nor right that any 
one of the four should belittle either of the others in the 
supposed interests of its own great ends. Let all stand 
together and build together, — Christian education and 
world-wide missions, the great work of social service and the 
supreme task of Christian evangelism! Then our church 
life will rise solid, substantial and symmetrical. The winds 
may blow, the rains descend, and the waves beat upon that 
house, but it will stand secure, firmly founded on the rock 
of obedience to Christ. 



APPENDIX 



LETTERS 



IN response to the invitations, many letters were received, 
accompanying acceptances or regrets, in all of which were 
cordial expressions of congratulation and good -will. Most 
of these letters are very brief, and some are so personal in 
their contents as not to be adapted to general circulation. 
As one reads them, one appreciates anew how widespread 
is the interest in such a celebration as this, and how many 
hearts, in widely scattered communities, are bound to this 
ancient church in ties of grateful affection. From this 
sheaf of letters, the following have been selected as typical 
of this expression of Christian fellowship, so deeply appre- 
ciated by the church. 

Newton Centre, 

October 23, 1914. 
To the First Church in Newton — Greeting! 

Dear Brethren — The First Baptist Church in Newton, 
long conscious of the fellowship and Christian sympathy 
which has been so marked a feature of the church life of 
this village and which from early in our history has marked 
the relations between our two congregations, sends you on 
the occasion of your two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, 
its hearty congratulations for the past and best wishes for 
the future. We have rejoiced in your good works, we 
have been gladdened by your prosperity and our faith has 
been strengthened by your steadfastness. 

For many years you and we were the only churches in 
this village, and its religious life centered in our two meeting- 
houses. Led by men of God, devout in spirit, one common 
purpose has animated us, and the service of God and the 
glory of his name has been preached and practiced in these 
parishes. We have honored the goodly men who have been 
and are your leaders. We have been blessed in their min- 



1 86 LETTERS 

istry and the fellowship in the Christian lives and activities 
of your congregation has been an inspiration and example 
to us. 

On these days when you look back upon an honorable 
past and forward into a future full of promise, we bid you 
Godspeed and pray for you the blessing of God who hath 
founded you and stablished you in his truth. 

By vote of the Church, this 23d day of October, 1914. 

M. Grant Edmands, 

Clerk. 

To the First Church in Newton — Greeting! 

The Official Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in Newton Centre appointed the undersigned a committee 
to express to the First Church the hearty congratulations 
of our pastor and people on the occasion of your two hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary. We gladly recognize the eminent 
place that your church holds as a religious force in this 
community; not only by the prestige of its venerable age, 
but also because of its long line of faithful ministers, the 
noble names in its roll of members past and present, its 
steadfast witnessing to the Faith, its own increasing power 
in moulding the life and character of this city. 

It was nearly forty years after the First Church was 
organized that John Wesley was born. Your denomina- 
tional origins were stirring in England a century before 1664. 
Methodism is therefore a younger sister of Congregational- 
ism, in the family of Protestant bodies. In the great move- 
ments of Christianity, of the past two centuries and more, 
one confession has proclaimed, "I am of John Calvin"; 
another, "I am of John Wesley." But, in this time the 
emphasis is not to be given to any merely human leader- 
ship. Paul rebuked those Corinthians who in divided 
ranks cried, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of 
Cephas." So in this season of your historic festival, we 
are with you to rejoice that there is for us all "one Lord, 
one Faith, one Baptism," and that these are foregleams of 
a glorious day to come ere long when there shall be "neither 



LETTERS 187 

Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but 

Christ shall be all and in all. " 

The challenge to your church and ours, and to all of 

Christendom, in this crisis among nations, is that we do 

our utmost to bring in the reign of righteousness, unity and 

peace. 

William E. Huntington, 
William P. Cooke, 
Milton A. Chandler, 
October 23, 1914. Committee on Greetings. 

Boston, October 16, 1914. 
Mr. William H. Rice, 

Newton Centre, Mass.: 
My dear Sir — I received your very kind invitation to be 
present at the two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary of the 
First Church in Newton, and I regret exceedingly that my 
absence in the West at that time will render my attendance 
impossible. 

I wish to express in behalf of the American Unitarian 
Association our congratulations and heartiest good wishes 
for the continuance of the splendid influence of your church, 
and we hope that it will find in the present anniversary 
inspiration for renewed effort in behalf of congregational 
simplicity of worship and the establishment of the Kingdom 
of God in the hearts and minds of the people. 

With fraternal greetings, I remain 
Sincerely yours, 

Lewis G. Wilson. 

Hartford, Conn., October 18, 1914. 
Mr. William H. Rice, 

Committee of the First Church in Newton, 
Dear Brother — In behalf of the First Church of Christ in 
Hartford I send greeting and congratulations to you for 
the First Church in Newton. We rejoice with you in the 
record of the years that are past, and we pray for you 
continued grace for the enlarging opportunities of the years 
that are to come. 



I 88 LETTERS 

The whole fellowship of the ancient churches of New 
England is with you in the Spirit as you celebrate the 
"mighty men — the fathers who begot us" — May their cour- 
age and faith, their patience and love, be given unceasing- 
ly to us their children. 

Cordially yours, 

Rockwell Harmon Potter. 
Minister to The First Church of Christ in Hartford, 
Founded 1632. 

Roxbury, Mass., October 18, 1914. 
Mr. W. H. Rice, 
Newton Centre, 
My dear Mr. Rice — The Two Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of your church, to which you have so kindly 
invited me, offers an occasion full of interest. Your be- 
ginning takes me back to the early history of my own 
church when the Apostle Eliot, now the most commanding 
figure in the settlement of New England, made his unweary- 
ing journeys through the wilderness to bear his brotherly 
messages to the Indians, where your church now sends 
out its Gospel under such different surroundings. I trust 
you are as earnest and unwearied to convert the heathen 
around you, as he was the savages, and I dare say you 
find them far more numerous. I hope all your services may 
be full of interest and profit, and I would gladly be with 
you if my engagements would permit, but they will not. 
Thanking you very much, I am 
Very gratefully yours, 

James DeNormandie. 

21 Kirkland Street, 
Cambridge, Mass., 
November i, 19 14. 
My dear Noyes — I am much troubled to find , on returning 
from New York last night, that a department meeting has 
been set for four o'clock tomorrow, Monday afternoon. 
I cannot absent myself from it. But that and a class at 



LETTERS 189 

the Brooks House in the evening effectually prevent my 
coming to your celebration, which I deeply regret. 

I am sending back my dinner ticket to your Mr. Rice 
that a better man may have the dinner. 

But you and I have long worked together, and two hun- 
dred and fifty years is a long time in the life of an American 
church, and that makes me very sorry that I cannot come. 

With congratulations, best wishes, and devoted regard, 
Yours, 

Edward C. Moore. 



Ogunquit, Me., 

September 21, 1914. 
Dear Dr. Noyes — Monday afternoon, November 2, I 
shall be more than happy to bring you and your venerably 
noble church greetings. 

I cannot remain for the evening as an important meeting 
in Old South will compel my return. 

Mrs. Gordon desires me to thank you for the courteous 
invitation to her. Heartiest congratulations! 

Very truly yours, 

George A. Gordon. 



Boston, October 27, 1914. 
Mr. William H. Rice, 

Newton Centre, Mass. 
My dear Mr. Rice — It is a matter of great regret that I 
shall not be able to attend the banquet on the occasion of 
the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of your church. 
Engagements of long standing will prevent. 

I extend my most hearty congratulations to the officers, 
members, and of course to the beloved pastor of the church. 
The church has had a notable history, and it seems to me 
has never more fully achieved the great mission of a Chris- 
tian church than to-day. 

Yours ever faithfully, 

A. Z. Conrad. 



I 90 LETTERS 

Springfield, Mass., 

October 28, 19 14. 

My dear Mr. Rice — The invitation to the anniversary 
celebration at Newton Centre, with its long list of pleas- 
antly familiar names and its attractive program, has been 
tugging away at our hearts until long after the proper time 
for sending response. But when it has become finally cer- 
tain that both Mrs. Kilbon and I must forego the pleasure 
of getting even a glimpse of the proceedings, I must send 
just a word of congratulation and good wishes. The 
Newton Centre church seems to me to be the choicest com- 
pany of people I have ever been connected with. May 
the power of your associated manhood be more and more 
effectively used for the glory of God and the upbuilding of 
his kingdom. And may the strong leadership of your pastor 
continue to grow in strength for a long time to come. 
Twenty years is not long, compared with two hundred and 
fifty, but it is long enough to ensure that a very large part 
of the congregation associate church and minister insep- 
arably in thought. It is good for church and minister, both, 
that this thing is so. 

With cordial greetings to old friends and good wishes for 
all, I am 

Cordially yours, 

John Luther Kilbon. 

Newton Centre, Mass., 

October 19, 1914. 
Mr. William H. Rice: 

Dear Sir — I have received the courteous invitation to 
attend the celebration of your church's Two Hundred and 
Fiftieth Anniversary, and sincerely thank you for kind re- 
membrance. It will be impossible for me to attend but I 
hope the celebration will be a memorable success and that 
God's choicest blessings will be upon you, every one. 
Again thanking you sincerely, 

I am yours in Christ, 

Daniel C. Riordan. 



LETTERS 191 

Indianapolis, Ind., 

October 28, 1914. 

Dear Will— I wish, indeed, that we were to start for New- 
ton Centre tonight instead of this letter. Please let us 
express our best wishes to the busy committee, while send- 
ing deep regrets that we can be no nearer than a thousand 
miles, on the great occasion. 

I keenly appreciated your thoughtfulness in sending the 
invitation and feel guilty that I did not at first notice that 
it was a really, truly invitation with r. s. v. p. postscript, 
which I ought to have answered last week. 

It seems to m.e as though no one outside your parish 
could be more interested than I in this anniversary, and I 
have read over the program several times, have bragged of 
the great occasion in this hundred-year-old state, and have 
imagined just what thronged gatherings and inspired 
speaking you will have. 

What a wonderful record it has been from John Eliot, Jr., 
to this year of Our Lord ! What a fine thing it is that this 
anniversary gives the impulse and occasion for a review and 
interpretation of the history! 

There will always be plenty of interest, and need of in- 
terest, in the larger annals of American history, but I 
sometimes think there is a finer inspiration in a close famil- 
iarity with some community records, like those you are 
recalling. How those little recorded generations did work 
together for family, church, and village progress in order 
that you and I, Will, might get the inheritance we did! 

I wish every success to the meetings and the hard -worked 
committees that have organized them. 

Sincerely, 

Frederic G. Melcher. 



LIST OF MEMORIALS. 



Unless otherwis3 stated, all memorials are in the possession of the church. 

Photograph of Rev. James Bates, 1846. 

Photograph of Rev. William Bushnell. 

Photograph of Henry Gibbs, Esq., of Newton, 1 694-1 761. 

Photograph of the Old Rice House, formerly on Centre 
Street; built by Henry Gibbs in 1742; and he lived 
there until his death. 

Photograph of Rev. Ephraim Ward, 1741-1818, and 
Mrs. Ward, daughter of Benjamin Colman of Bos- 
ton. — Loaned by Mrs. Julius A. Rising, Newton Centre. 

Portrait (upon silk) of Mr. Ephraim Ward, i 771-1797. — 
Loaned by Miss Annie C. Ward, Newton Centre. 

Photograph of Mrs. Anna Hammond Pope, 1754-1859; 
from a portrait painted at the age of ninety. 

Portrait of Mrs. Hannah Woodward Jackson, wife 
of Dea. William Jackson; painted in 1811. — Loaned 
by Miss Lucretia J. Fuller, Newton, 

Photographs of Dea. Elijah F. Woodward, 1786- 
1846, and Mrs. Woodward, i 790-1 871. — Loaned 
by Mrs. Frederick N. Woodward, Waban. 

Photograph of Dea. Eben. Woodward, 1811-1879. — 
Loaned by Mrs. Frederick N. Woodward, Waban. 

Photographs of Dea. Luther Paul, i 793-1 863, and 
Mrs, Paul, i 799-1 861. — Loaned by Mrs. Luther 
Paul, Newton Centre. 

Photographs of Dea. Asa Cook, Rev. Increase S. 
Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Stone, and four 
generations of the Stone family. — Loaned by Mr. 
George N. Stone, Newton Highlands. 

Portrait of Mrs. Sally Bullard Brackett, and Photo- 
graph OF Rev. Gilbert R. Brackett, D.D. — 
Loaned by Mrs. C. Peter Clark, Newton Centre. 



MEMORIALS 1 93 

Portrait of Mrs. Mary (Hett) Fitch, grandmother of 

Rev. Jonas Meriam's second wife, and silhouettes of 

Mrs. John Kendrick's family. — Loaned by Miss 

Mabel and Miss Jeannie Kendrick, Newton. 
Photograph of Portrait of Goody Davis, i 636-1 752 (?). 

— Portrait now in the possession of the Massachusetts 

Historical Society. 
Photograph of Dea. William Jackson and Family, 

photograph of Dea. William Jackson's second wife, 

and engraving of Miss Harriet Newell. — Loaned by 

Mrs. Harry E. Keith, Newton. 
Photographs of Rev. Theodore J. Holmes and Mrs. 

Holmes. — Loaned by Mr. George A. Holmes, Newton 

Centre. 
Portrait of Charles Ward.— Loaned by Charles Ward 

Post, Grand Army of the Republic. 
Two Photographs of Newton High School Scholars, 

1853. — Loaned by Mr. William B. Wood, Newton 

Highlands. 
Photograph of Laying the CornerStoneofthe Church, 

1903. — Loaned by Mr. E. Farnum Rockwood, New- 
ton Centre. 
Portrait of Mr. Marshall S. Rice. — Loaned by Mrs. 

Marshall O. Rice, Newton Centre. 
Photographs of Hon. Robert R. Bishop and Mrs. 

Bishop. — Loaned by Mr. Elias B. Bishop, Newtori 

Centre. 
Engraved Portrait of Mr. James J. Walworth, 1808- 

1896. — Loaned by Mr. Arthur C. Walworth, Newton 

Centre. 
Photograph of Dea. John Ward. — Gift of Mr. Samuel 

Ward, Newton Centre. 
Photographs of Mr. B. Wood and Mrs. Wood. — Loaned 

by Miss Maria F. Wood, Newton Centre. 
Portraits of General Cheney and Mrs. Cheney. — 

Loaned by Mrs. Franklin N. Thatcher, Newton Centre. 
Silver Communion Service. — Presented to the Church 

of Christ in Newton. Donors: John Staples, 1727; 

13 



194 MEMORIALS 

Ebenezer Stone, Sr., 1730; Abraham White, 1731; 
Anna Longley, 1733; Dea. William Trowbridge, 1744; 
Dea. John Stone, 1768; Abigail Parker, 1768. 

Pewter Platters from Old Communion Service, Orig- 
inally Used by the Church. 

Revolutionary Sword, Carried by Capt. John Wood- 
ward at the Battle of Lexington. 

Old Violin, Used by Dea. Elijah F. Woodward in the 
Choir. 

Lunch Basket, Used on the Sabbath by the Wood- 
ward Family. 

Old Foot-Stove, Used in the Meeting-house, 1810- 
1847. 

Sketch of the Meeting-house, Built in 1805, Drawn 
BY Miss Harriet Woodward. 

Old Hymn and Tune Books, Used by Dea. Wood- 
ward IN THE Choir. 

Books of Sermons by Cotton Mather, March 26, 
1686. 

Sampler, Monument Piece and Genealogy of the 
Woodward Family. 
All the above memorials loaned by Mrs. Frederick N. 

Woodward, Waban. 

Curtains, Spun, Woven, and Embroidered by Hannah 
Greenwood Woodward, 1730, also a Pewter Plate, 
Old China, and Books. — Loaned by Mrs. S. A. Syl- 
vester, Newton Centre. 

Chair, Formerly Owned by Dr. Homer. — Loaned by 
Mrs. Harry E. Keith, Newton. 

Dr. Furber's Study Chair and Palm Leaf Fan. — Loaned 
by Miss Sally Little, Newton Centre. 

Chair, Owned by Mrs. Furber while a Teacher at 
Hanover, N. H. — Loaned by Miss Maria F. Wood, 
Newton Centre. 

Cricket and Stool, Used in the Church, 1865. — Loaned 
by Mrs. John Stearns, Newton Highlands. 



MEMORIALS 1 95 

Betty Lamp, Cheese Cutter, Broiler, Toaster and 
Foot-stove. — Loaned by Mrs. Charles B. Moore, 
Newton Centre. 

Pewter Plate, Porringer, Sand Box, Flint antd Steel, 
Snuff Box, and Books, Formerly Owned by Rev. 
Jonas Meriam. — Loaned by Mr. John Kendrick 
Taylor, Waban. 

Photograph of the Falling Steeple of the Church, 
1903. Plan of pews, which formerly hung in the vesti- 
bule, and contribution box, used in i860. — Loaned by 
Mr. G. W. Ulmer. 

Pewter Platters, Owned by Mrs. Beulah Fuller. — 
Loaned by Mrs. George N. Stone, Newton Highlands. 

Letter from Jonathan Homer to Dr. James Freeman, 

August 5, 1816. 
Letter from Rev. James Bates to Dr. Pond. 
Sermon by Rev. Nehemiah Hob art: "The Absence of 

the Comforter Described and Lamented"; published 

1717. 
Sermons by Rev. John Cotton, A.M., Delivered in 

Newton 1741. 
Sermon by Rev. Jonathan Homer. 
Four Sermons by Rev. John Cotton, Rev. Jonathan 

Homer, and Rev. William Bushnell. 
Bible Presented to Jonathan Homer by his Friend, 

Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin of the British Navy. 
Photograph of the "Winthrop Club," Boston, i860. 
All the above loaned by the Congregational Library of 
Boston. 
The Bible in two Volumes, Given by Rev. Nehemiah 

HOBART TO his DAUGHTER, ABIGAIL, ON HER MARRIAGE 

TO Rev. John Fisk. — Loaned by their great, great, 
great-grandson, Mr. Elias B. Bishop, Newton Centre. 
Bible Presented by Dr. Homer to Jonathan Homer 
Cheney. — Loaned by Mrs. Franklin N. Thatcher, 
Newton Centre. 



196 MEMORIALS 

Old Bible, Containing the Ward Genealogy from 
1626. — Loaned by Mr. Samuel Ward, Newton Centre. 

Diary Kept by Dea. Luther Paul. — Loaned by Mrs. 
John W. Paul, Newton Centre. 

The Works of Richard Baxter, four vols; folio; Lon- 
don 1707. — Given by the Hon. Samuel Holden, Esq., 
of London, governor of the Bank of England, to the 
Church of Christ, in Newton. 

Letter Written by Charles Ward to his Mother from 
HIS Death Bed after the Battle of Gettysburg. — 
Loaned by Mr. Samuel Ward, Newton Centre. 

Plate with View of the Old Church. — Loaned by Miss 
Julia C. Henshaw, Newton Centre. 

Letters from Dr. Furber and Mrs. Furber, and Photo- 
graphs OF THE Old Church. — Loaned by Mrs. Mar- 
shall O. Rice, Newton Centre. 

Photograph of the Interior of the Old Church. — 
Presented by Mr. Frederick C. Rising, Newton Centre. 

Catechism, Bible, and other books. — Loaned by Mrs. 
J. F. C. Hyde, Newton Highlands. 

Letter from Dr. Homer; Letter from Dr. Furber; 
Watch and Chain, Formerly Owned by Dr. Fur- 
ber; Lace Cap, Pin, etc.. Formerly Owned by 
Mrs. Furber.— Loaned by Miss Maria F. Wood, 
Newton Centre. 

Old Hymn and Tune Book, Used in the Church. — 
Loaned by Mrs. D. W. Eagles, Newton Centre. 

Photograph of the Interior of the Church Previous 
to 1892. 

Photograph of the Interior of the Chapel; Photograph 
OF the Old Horse Sheds on Bowen Street; Photo- 
graph OF the Old Church, 1868. 

Photograph of the Home of Rev. John Cotton, cor- 
ner OF Cabot and Centre Streets. 

Photograph of the Home of Obadiah Curtis, father of 
Mrs. Homer, Waverly Avenue. 

Silver Tea Service. — Bequeathed to the church by Mrs. 
Furber. 



MEMORIALS 1 97 

Sword and Belt, Worn by Dr. Furber when He Served 

ON THE Christian Commission during the Civil 

War. 
Dr. Furber's Diary and Letters From Abroad. 
Memorandum Book of the Church, written about 1845. 
Plans of the Old Church, 1847 and 1870. 
Various Manuscripts and Account Books from the 

Archives of the Church, 
Memorabilia Connected with Dr. Furber and Mrs. 

Furber, from the Archives of the Church. 



THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEWTON 
MASSACHUSETTS 



ORGANIZATION 

Pastor. — Rev. Edward MacArthur Noyes, 9 Laurel Street. Tel. 
Newton South 722-W. 

Deacons. — Sylvanus G. Morse, William H. Wales, Frank M. Forbush, 
John Y. Mainland, Charles Wood Bond, Joseph M. Kellaway. 

Clerk. — Herbert J. Kellaway, 25 Irving Street. 

Treasurer. — A. Leslie Harwood, Jr., 945 Beacon Street. 

Assistant Treasurer. — Francis C. Hoffman, 63 Parker Street. 

Auditor. — Frederick C. Rising, 84 Parker Street. 

Standing Committee. — Pastor, Deacons, Clerk, Treasurer, Bible School 
Superintendent, Albert E. Bailey, George M. Butler. 

Prudential Committee. — Frank H. Stewart, Eugene H. Tilton, Frederick 
S. Woods, Frederic H. Butts, Charles Peter Clark, Christopher 
M. Goddard, the Treasurer, the Clerk, and from the Congrega- 
tion, Walter W. Beckett, Norman F. Pratt, Charles S. Wing. 

Music Committee. — George A. Holmes, Arthur C. Walworth (Chairman), 
S. Willoughby Wilder. 

Ushers. — William H. Rice, A. Leslie Harwood, Jr., E. Farnum Rockwood. 

Bible School. — Superintendent, Charles E. Kelsey; Assistant Superin- 
tendents, Charles B. Gordon, William H. Rice; Superintendent 
Junior Department, Miss Emma E. Porter; Superintendent Primary 
Department, Miss Elizabeth Nash; Superintendent Kindergarten, 
Miss Laura E. Cragin; Superintendent Cradle Roll, Mrs. George 
W. Bartlett; Superintendent Home Department, Mrs. Edward M. 
Noyes; Treasurer, Stanley Merrill; Secretary, W. Lawrence Beckett. 

Men's Club. — President, Charles Peter Clark; Vice-President, George 
A. Holmes; Secretary-Treasurer, W. Lawrence Beckett. 

Society of Christian Endeavor. — President, Gladys B. Sampson; 
Vice-President^ Abigail G. Smith; Secretary, Edward Smith; Treas- 
urer, Mortimer Grossman. 

Woman's Benevolent and Church Aid Society. — President, Mrs. 
Abraham Polhemus; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Joshua M. Dill, Mrs. 
Frank H. Stewart; Secretary, Mrs. Sylvanus G. Morse; Treasurer, 
Mrs. George A. Holmes; Auditor, Mrs. Charles L. Smith. 
Home Mission Department. — Chairman, Mrs. Frederick E. Ban- 
field; Secretary, Mrs. C. Peter Clark. 



ORGANIZATION 1 99 

Foreign Mission Department. — Chairman, Mrs. Newell L. Cutler; 

Secretary, Mrs. William E. Shedd. 
Church Aid Department. — Chairman, Mrs. Matthew C. Skilton; 

Secretary, Mrs. Charles B. Gordon. 
Hospitality Committee. — Chairman, Mrs. Henry Baily. 
Entertainment Committee. — Chairman, Mrs. John F. Capron. 
Relief Committee. — Chairman, Mrs. Abner K. Pratt. 
Sunshine Society. — President, Priscilla Clark; Vice-President, 

Charlotte Hill; Secretary, Carolyn P. Butts; Treasurer, Elizabeth 

Clark; Director, Mrs. Edward M. Noyes. 
FuRBER Missionary Society. — President, Miss Priscilla Ordway; 

Vice-President, Miss Elizabeth M. Burdett; Secretary, Miss Abi- 
gail G. Smith; Treasurer, Margaret Shedd. 
Troop 3, Newton, Boy Scouts of America. — Scoutmaster, Dr. 

Robert F. Hayden; Assistant Scoutmaster, Robert Louis Forbush. 
Organist and Director. — D. Ralph Maclean. Tel. Dorchester 

5027-M. 
Choir. — Soprano, Mrs. Lora Lamport McGuane; Alto, Mrs. Ida 

Benjamin Gruhn; Tenor, Harry A. Cook; Bass, Augustus T. 

Beatey. 
Church Telephone. — Newton South 1052-R. 
Sexton. — Charles E. Ryall, 19 Francis Street. Tel. Newton South 

539-3- 



INDEX OF NAMES 



A. B. C. F. M., 64, 135, 172. 
Adams, John Quincy, 60. 
Amherst College, 135, 169. 
Andover Seminary, 173. 
Andrews, Mrs. E. A., 16. 
Angell, Pres. James B., 169. 
Angelo, Michael, 48. 
Alcott, Bronson, 171. 
Auburndale Congregational 
Church, 8, 131. 

Bacon, Judge William F., 19, 152, 

153- 
Bailey, Albert E., 198. 
Baily, Mrs. Henry, 15, 199. 
Banfield, Mrs. F. E., 198. 
Baptist Church, Newton Centre, 

The First, 7, 18, 60, 61, 103, 

127, 128, 185. 
Bartlett, Mrs. G. W., 198. 
Bartlett, Lester M., 20. 
Barton, Rev. Dr. James L., 18, 

63, 82, 121, 145, 146, 160, 173. 
Bates, Rev. James, 9, 13, 58, 192, 

195- 
Baxter, Rev. Richard, 196. 
Beatey, Augustus T., 20, 199. 
Beatey, Lilian V., 20. 
Beck, Brother, 35. 
Beckett, Walter W., 198. 
Beckett, W. Lawrence, 15, 198. 
Beecher, Rev. Dr. Lyman, 160. 
Beloit College, 169. 
Bingham, Rev. Dr. Hiram, 172, 
Bishop, Elias B., 12, 14, 15, 193. 
Bishop, Judge Robert R., il, 193. 
Bishop, Mrs. R. R., 193. 



Blatchford, Mrs. E. W., 69. 

Block, Adrian, 48. 

Bond, Charles Wood, 198. 

Bowdoin College, 132, 135, 169. 

Boynton, Rev. Dr. George M., 63. 

Brackett, Rev. Dr. Gilbert, 192. 

Brackett, Mrs. Sally Bullard, 192. 

Brainerd, Rev. David, 62. 

Brett, George P., no. 

Brown, Rev. Dr. Charles R., 19, 

20, 166. 
Browning, Robert, 170. 
Bryant, Rev. Albert G., 17, 41. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 78. 
Buckminster, Rev. Dr. Joseph, 69, 
Buckminster, Rev. Joseph, 69. 
Bunyan, John, 32. 
Burdett, Elizabeth M., 199. 
Burns, Robert, 132. 
Burton, Rev. Dr. Charles E., 114. 
Bushnell, Rev. William, 10, 13, 58, 

192, 195. 
Butler, George M., 198. 
Butler, Rev. Willis H., 18, 21, 133. 
Butts, Carolyn P., 199. 
Butts, Frederic H., 198. 
Butts, Mrs. F. H., 15. 
Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, 69, 70. 

Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, 48. 
Calkins, Rev. Dr. Raymond, 18, 

124. 
Calkins, Rev. Dr. Wolcott, 17, 21, 

41. 
Calvin, John, 53, 186. 
Cambridge, First Church in, The, 

18, 124, 149, 155. 



202 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Capron, Mrs. Hmily M., 63. 

Capron, Mrs. J. F., 199. 

Caruso, 179. 

Gary, Rev. Dr. Otis, 63. 

Gary, Mrs. Ellen E., 63. 

Gervantes Saaveda, Miguel de, 48. 

Gentral Gongregational Church, 

Newtonville, 8, 131. 
Chandler, Milton A., 187. 
Charles I. of England, 49. 
Charles II. of England, 50. 
Cheney, General Ebenezer, 193. 
Cheney, Mrs. Ebenezer, 193. 
Cheney, Jonathan Homer, 195. 
Childs, Mayor Edwin O., 18, 122. 
Ghilds, Harriet N., 62, 
Clark, Alice Estelle, 62. 
Clark, Charles Peter, 15, 198. 
Clark, Mrs. C. P., 12, 14, 15, 192, 

198. 
Clark, Elizabeth, 199. 
Clark, Rev. Dr. Francis E., 91, 

112. 
Clark, Rev. Jonas, 68. 
Clark, Priscilla, 199. 
Coan, Rev. Titus, 173. 
Cobb, Anna E., 63. 
Cobb, Rev. Edward S., 62. 
Cobb, Rev. Dr. William H., 16, 

21, 31, 62. 
Godman, Rev. Dr., 127. 
Coffin, Sir Isaac, 195. 
Colby, Joseph L., 8. 
Colman, Benjamin, 192. 
Colorado College, 169. 
Columbia College, 68. 
Connick, Charles J., 12. 
Conrad, Rev. Dr. A. Z., 189. 
Constantine, The Emperor, 78. 
Cook, Dea. Asa, 52, 65, 192. 
Cook, Harry Allen, 20, 169. 
Cooke, Dr. William P., 187. 
Coolidge, Charles S., 12. 
Cotton, Rev. John, 7, 9, 13, 56, 65, 

67, 69, 112, 195, 196. 



Cousens, Capt. Joseph, 68. 
Gragin, Laura E., 198. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 43. 
Grossman, Mortimer, 198. 
Crothers, Rev. Dr. Samuel M., 

19. 149- 
Curtis, Obadiah, 196. 
Cutler, Rev. Dr. Charles H., 18, 

132. 
Cutler, Mrs. Newell L., 199. 

Dante, Alighieri, 132. 
Darwin, Charles, 105. 
Dartmouth College, 10, 61, 135, 

169. 
Davis, Charles S., 11. 
Davis, Goody, 193. 
Davis, Rev. Increase Sumner, 62, 

192. 
Davison, W. E., 20. 
DeForest, Rev. Dr. John H., 173. 
DeNormandie, Rev. Dr. James, 

188. 
Descartes, Rene, 48. 
Dewey, Diantha L., 63. 
Dill, Joshua M., 11, 12, 14, 15, 

198. 
Dill, Mrs. J. M., 198. 
Drummond, Prof. Henry, 46. 
Dunning, Mrs. Mary K. (Ward), 

62. 
Dwight, Pres. Timothy, 169. 

Eagles, Mrs. D. W., 196. 
Edmands, M. Grant, 186. 
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 18 1. 
Eliot Church, Newton, The, 8, 21, 

58, 121, 122, 123, 154. 
Eliot, Rev. John, 126, 188. 
Eliot, Rev. John, Jr., 9, 13, 32, 56, 

62, 191. 
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 48. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 169. 
Emer>', Allan C., 17, 80. 
Ewing, George C, 16. 



INDEX OF NAMES 



203 



Ewing, Rev. Dr. William, 16, 21, 
27, 62, 91. 

Farnham, David S., 106. 
Farwell, Rev. ParrisT., 16, 21, 25, 

63. 
Federal Street Church, Boston, 

The, 7. 
Ferguson, Rev. Frank L., 63. 
Finney, Pres. Charles G., 181. 
Fisk, Mrs. Abigail (Hobart), 195. 
Fisk, Rev. John, 195. 
Fiske, John, 45, 53. 
Fitch, Mrs. Mary Hett, 193. 
Forbush, Frank M., 198. 
Forbush, Robert L., 199. 
Fowle, Edwin M., 104. 
Fox, George, 59. 
Freeman, Rev. Dr. James, 195. 
Froude, James Anthony, 52. 
Fuller, Mrs. Beulah, 195. 
Fuller, Lucretia J., 192. 
Furber, Rev. Dr. Daniel L., 10, 11, 

12, 13, 16, 44, 52, 58, 60, 61, 

67, 94. 95. 104, 105, 159, 194, 

196, 197. 
Furber, Mrs. Maria Brigham, 12, 

61, 66, 104, 194, 196, 197. 

Galilei, Galileo, 48. 

Garland, Mrs. Sarah L. (Smith), 

62. 
George, Norman H., 15. 
George, Mrs. N. H., 16. 
Gibbs, Henry, Esq., 192. 
Gilman, Pres. Daniel C, 169. 
Gladden, Rev. Dr. Washington, 

176. 
Goddard, Christopher M., 198. 
Goddard, Mrs. C. M., 12, 14. 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 137. 
Gordon, Charles B., 198. 
Gordon, Mrs. C. B., 199. 
Gordon, Rev. Dr. George A., 21, 

133, 189. 



Grafton, Rev. Joseph, 61, 127. 
Greer, Bishop David H., 179. 
Greenough, Rev. William, 130. 
Grotius, Hugo, 48. 
Gruhn, Mrs. Ida Benjamin, 20, 

199. 
Guido Reni, 48. 
Gulick, Rev. Dr. Sidney L., 173. 

Hackett, Prof., H. B., 61. 

Hall, Hon. James M. W., 11, 12, 

14. 19. 152. 
Hall, Mary, 155. 
Hamlin, Rev. Dr. Cyrus, 173. 
Hartford, First Church of Christ 

in, The, 187. 
Harvard College, 9, 68, 135, 149, 

158, 169. 
Harwood, Hon. Albert L., 106. 
Harwood, Mrs. A. L., 12, 14, 15. 
Harwood, A. Leslie, Jr., 16, 198. 
Hayden, Dr. Robert F., 199. 
Henshaw, Julia C, 196. 
Hill, Charlotte, 199. 
Hillman, Mr., 107. 
Hobart, Rev. Nehemiah, 9, 13, 56, 

62, 67, 195. 
Hoffman, Francis C, 198. 
Holden, Hon. Samuel, Esq., 196. 
Holmes, George A., 15, 193, 

198. 
Holmes, Mrs. G. A., 16, 198. 
Holmes, Rev. Theodore J., 10, li, 

13, 16, 44, 58, 120, 193. 
Holmes, Mrs. T. J., 193. 
Holyoke, Pres. Edward, 56. 
Holyoke, Mt., College, 69, 135, 

169. 
Homer, Rev. Dr. Jonathan, 9, 13, 

52, 57,61,63,65,69,127,130, 

194, 195, 196. 
Homer, Mrs. Jonathan, 63, 196. 
Hooker, Richard, 48. 
Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 150, 155. 
Hopkins, Albert, 69. 



204 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Hopkins, Mrs. George W., i6. 
Hopkins, Pres. Mark, 69, 169. 
Horr, Pres. George E., 18, 127. 
Horton and Hemenway, 8. 
Hovey, Pres. Alvah, 61. 
Hubbard, Allen, 15. 
Hume, David, 52. 
Hume, Rev. Dr. Robert A., 173. 
Huntington, Rev. Dan, 160. 
Huntington, Samuel, 159. 
Huntington, Rev. Dr. William E., 

19. 159- 
Huxley, Thomas, 105. 
Hyde, Mrs. James F. C, 196. 

Jackson, Edward, 56. 

Jackson, Mrs. Hannah (Samuel), 

143. 
Jackson, Mrs. Hannah (William), 

192. 
Jackson, Dea. John, 45, 47. 
Jackson, Col. Michael, 68. 
Jackson, Samuel, 105. 
Jackson, Dea. William, 52, 58, 64, 

67, 122, 192, 193. 
James I. of England, 78. 
Jeflferson, Rev. Dr. Charles E., 60. 

Kayarnak, 35. 

Keith, Mrs. Harry E., 193, 194. 

Kellaway, Herbert J., 15, 198. 

Kellaway, Joseph M., 198, 199. 

Kelly, Henry, 20. 

Kelsey, Charles E., 11, 14, 15, 17, 

75, 87. 198- 
Kelsey, Mrs. C. E., 16. 
Kendrick, Jeannie, 193. 
Kendrick, Mrs. John, 193. 
Kendrick, Mabel, 193. 
Kepler, Johann, 48. 
Kidder, Mrs. D. T., 16. 
Kilbon, Rev. John L., 190. 
Kilbon, Mrs. J. L., 190. 
Kingsbury, Benjamin W., 95. 
Kingsbury, Charles, 94. 



Kingsbury, John, 94. 
Kruger, Pres. Paul, 116. 

LaMarchant, Alice V., 20. 
Lawrence, Bishop William, 145. 
Leibnitz, Wilhelm Von, 48. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 176, 180. 
Lindeman, Lena (Mrs. Joseph 

Ward), 62. 
Little, Sally, 194. 
Livermore, Mrs. Mary, 105. 
Lombard, Mrs. Alice (Ward), 62. 
Longley, Anna, 194. 
Lowry, Samuel E., 122. 
Luther, Martin, 132. 

Macauley, Thomas Babington, 53. 
Maclean, D. Ralph, 18, 19, 20, 

140, 165, 199. 
Mainland, John Y., 198. 
Mather, Rev. Dr. Cotton, 112, 

11.3. 194- 
Mather, Rev. Dr. Increase, 50. 
May, Dr. George E., 159. 
McAllister, Charles R., 20. 
McGuane, Mrs. Lora L., 20, 199. 
McKenzie, Rev. Dr. Alexander, 

126. 
Mead, Mrs. E. S., 69. 
Melba, Madame Nellie (Mitchell), 

179- 

Melcher, Frederic G., 191. 

Meriam, Rev. Jonas, 7, 9, 13, 57, 
66, 193, 195. 

Merrill, Stanley, 198. 

Methodist Church of Newton Cen- 
tre, The, 103, 186. 

Milton, John, 43, 48. 

Mitchel, Rev. Jonathan, 45, 125. 

Moliere, 48. 

Moody, Dwight, L. 181. 

Moore, Mrs. C. B., 195. 

Moore, Rev. Dr. Edward C, 189. 

Morse, Samuel F. B., 114. 

Morse, Sylvanus G., 198. 



INDEX OF NAMES 



205 



Morse, Mrs. S. G., 198. 
Munger, Rev. Dr. Theodore T., 
53- 

Nash, Elizabeth, 198. 

Nash, Rev. Dr. Henry, 102. 

Newell, Harriet, 193. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 48. 

Newton Highlands Congregational 

Church, 8, 131. 
North Congregational Church, 

Nonantum, 8, 123, 131. 
Northrop, Pres. Cyrus D., 169. 
Noyes, Mrs. Clara (Searle), 106. 
Noyes, Rev. Edward M., 10, 11, 

12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 29, 43, 

77, 85, 139. 144, 165, 198. 
Noyes, Mrs. E. M., 198, 199. 
Noyes, Dea. E. W., 106. 
Nunn, Mrs. Ethel H., 20. 

Oakland, First Church in. The, 

175- 
Oberlin College, 169. 
Ordway, Herbert I., 11, 14. 
Ordway, Mrs. H. I., 12. 
Ordway, Priscilla, 199. 

Park, Prof. Edwards A., 69. 

Park, Rev. J. Edgar, 18, 129. 

Park, Rev. Joseph, 62. 

Park, Nathan, 69. 

Parker, Abigail, 194. 

Pascal, Blaise, 48. 

Paul, Charles H., 12. 

Paul, Henry, 143. 

Paul, Mrs. J. W., 196. 

Paul, Dea. Luther, 65, 192, 196. 

Paul, Mrs. Luther, 192. 

Philip, King, 31, 33. 

Phillips, Wendell, 105. 

Pilgrim Church of Duluth, The, 

ID, 144. 
Pierce, Rev. Jason N., 17, 85. 
Pliny, The Younger, "]"] . 



Polhemus, Mrs. Abraham, 12, 14, 

15. 198. 
Pond, Rev. Dr. Enoch, 195. 
Pope, Mrs. Anna Hammond, 67, 

192. 
Porter, Emma E., 198. 
Porter, Pres. Noah, 169. 
Potter, Rev. Dr. Rockwell H., 188. 
Pratt, Abner K., 12, 14, 15. 
Pratt, Mrs. A. K., 199. 
Pratt, Norman F., 198. 
Racine, Jean Baptiste, 48. 
Raikes, Robert, 66. 
Rand, Mrs. Sarah (Wood), 106. 
Ransom, J. Eva, 12. 
Rembrandt, Hermanzoon van 

Ryn, 48. 
Rice, Marshall S., 193. 
Rice, Mrs. Marshall O., 193. 
Rice, William H., 11, 14, 143, 

147, 196, 198. 
Rice, Mrs. W. H., 16. 
Riggs, Rev. Dr. Elias, 173. 
Riordan, Rev. Daniel C, 190. 
Rising, Frederic C, 196, 198. 
Rising, Mrs. F. C, 16. 
Rising, Mrs. Julius A., 192. 
Rising, William D., 16. 
Robertson, Bertha (Mrs. Charles 

F. Roper), 62. 
Rockwood, E. Farnum, 16, 193, 

198. 
Romanes, John George, 46. 
Rubens, Peter Paul, 48. 
Ryall, Charles E., 199. 

Salvator, Rosa, 48. 
Sampson, Gladys B., 198. 
Sapin, Mrs. Cara, 20. 
Savonarola, Girolamo, 132. 
Sawyer, Charles H., 16. 
SchifiF, Jacob, 179. 
Schneiderman, Rose, 179. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 132. 



206 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Second Church, West Newton, 
The, i8, 129, 130, 131. 

Sedgewick, Catherine Maria, 69. 

Sedgwick, Judge Theodore, 69. 

Sergeant, Mrs. Abigail (Williams), 
62. 

Sergeant, Rev. John, 62. 

Shakespeare, William, 48, 132. 

Shedd, Margaret, 199. 

Shedd, Mrs. W. E., 12, 14, 15, 199. 

Shepard, Rev. Thomas, 45. 

Shepley, Rutanand Coolidge, 8, 12. 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 48. 

Simkhovitch, Mrs. Mary (Kings- 
bury), 18, 91. 

Skilton, Mrs. M. C, 199. 

Smith, Abigail E., 198, 199. 

Smith, Rev. Dr. Arthur H., 173. 

Smith College, 135, 169. 

Smith, Mrs. C. L., 198. 

Smith, Edward H., 198. 

Smith, Rev. Dr. Samuel P., 61, 
140. 

Smith, Mrs. T. Snell, 63. 

South Church, of Boston, The 
Old, 21, 133, 150, 154. 

Spenser, Edmund, 48. 

Spinoza, Benedict, 48. 

Staples, Dea. John, 57, 193. 

Stearns, Prof. Oakman S., 61. 

Stearns, Mrs. John, 194. 

Stewart, Frank H., 12, 14, 18, 143, 
145, 198. 

Stewart, Mrs. F. H., 198. 

Stiles, Pres. Ezra, 50. 

Stone, Ebenezer, Sr., 194. 

Stone, George F., 143. 

Stone, Mrs. George N., 192, 195. 

Stone, Dea. John, 194. 

Stone, Jonathan, 192. 

Stone, Mrs. Jonathan, 192. 

Storrs, Rev. Dr. Richard S., 48. 

Sullivan, Rev. Edward T., 18, 136, 

145- 
Sylvester, Mrs. S. A., 194. 



Tasso, Torquato, 48. 
Taylor, Rev. Dr. Graham, 176. 
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 151. 
Taylor, John Kendrick, 195. 
Thatcher, Mrs. Franklin N., 193, 

195- 
Tilton, Eugene H., 198. 
Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti, 48. 
Titian Vecelli, 48. 
Trinity P. E. Church, Newton 

Centre, 20, 136, 143, 144, 145, 

147. 
Trowbridge, Dea. William, 194. 
Tucker, Pres. William J., 169. 
Tyndall, John, 105. 

Ulmer, G. W., 195. 
Ulmer, Mrs. G. W., Jr., 75. 

Vandyke, Sir Anthony, 48. 
Vega Carpio, Lope de, 48. 
Velasquez, Diego, 48. 
Veronese, Paul, 48. 

Waban, Union Church of, The, 18, 

131. 132. 
Wales, William H., 198. 
Walworth, Arthur C, 11, 14, 15, 

193, 198. 
Walworth, James J., 193. 
Ward, Annie C, 192. 
Ward, Charles A., 68, 193, 196. 
Ward, Earl, 62. 

Ward, Dr. Edwin St. John, 62. 
W^ard, Rev. Ephraim, 192. 
Ward, Ephraim, 192. 
Ward, Mrs. Ephraim, 192. 
Ward, Dea. John, 193. 
Ward, Rev. Joseph, 62. 
Ward, Dea. Langdon S., 62. 
Ward, Laura, 62. 

Ward, Mrs. Lena (Lindeman), 62. 
Ward, Mark, 62. 
Ward, Mary Isabella, 62. 
Ward, Ruth (Mrs. F. P. Beach), 62. 



INDEX OF NAMES 



207 



Ward, Samuel, 11, 14, 15, 62, 193, 

196. 
Ward, Mrs. Samuel, 16. 
Warren, Richard, 159. 
Webster, Prof. Arthur G., 18, 91, 

102. 
Webster, William E., II. 
Wellesley College, 135, 169. 
Wellman, Rev. Dr. Joshua W., 

122. 
Wesley, John, 186. 
White, Abraham, 194. 
Whitman College, 135, 169. 
Wholey. Rev. Dennis T., 138. 
Wilder, S. Willoughby, 15, 198. 
Wilder, Mrs. S. W., 17, 20, 75. 
Williams College, 64, 69, 135, 169, 

172. 
Williams, Rev. Elisha, 64, 69. 
Williams, Col. Ephraim, 64, 69. 
Williams, Dea. Isaac, 64, 67, 69. 
Williams, Mrs. Judith (Cooper), 

64. 
Williams, Roger, 59, 60. 
Williams, Rev. Dr. Solomon, 69. 



Williams, Rev. William, 69. 

Williams, William, 69. 

Wilson, Rev. Dr. Lewis G., 187. 

Wing, Charles S., 198. 

Winthrop Club of Boston, 195. 

Wise, Rabbi Nathan, 179. 

Wood, B., 193. 

Wood, Mrs. B., 193. 

Wood, Maria B. F., 15, 106, 193, 

194, 196. 
Wood, William B., 193. 
Woods, Frederick S., 198. 
Woodward, Dea. Eben, 192. 
Woodward, Dea. Elijah F., 7, 52, 

65, 67, 152, 192, 194. 
Woodward, Mrs. E. F., 192. 
Woodward, Mrs. F. N., 192, 194. 
Woodward, Hannah Greenwood, 

194. 
Woodward, Harriet, 194. 
Woodward, Capt. John, 194. 
Woolsey, Pres. Theodore D., 169. 
Wordsworth, William, 72. 

Yale College, 10, 135, 169. 



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